
Class H2l1S_3_ 

Book .V/_gi_ 
GpightN?__ 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT; 



ADELAIDE WAYLAND. 



ADDRESS RELATIVE 



TO 



The Proposed 
Kansas Homes 

FOE THE 

Orphan and Indigent 
Aged of the Order 

By ADELAIDE WAYLAND. 



1904. 

The Editor Publishing Co., 

New York. 






LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

DEC 6 1804 

Copyngfir tntry 

CLASS O. XXc. No; 

L/O >-/ 3 J~z 
COPY B. I 

1-T ..„.„„ . ■ -, j 






Copyrighted 1904 by Adelaide VVayland. 



Dedication. 

To you, dear sisters and brothers 
of Kansas, who, in the past, have 
labored side by side, and hand in 
hand with me in efforts to bring our 
beloved order up to the full realiza- 
tion of its great and benign possibil- 
ities, this little volume is most lov- 
ingly dedicated. 

As I pen this dedicatory, a vision 
of the twelve thousand members, 
who worked with me during my 
presidency, comes before my eyes; 
and I am reminded anew of the earn- 
est support and hearty co-operation 
they gave me, without which my en- 
deavors would have been as worth- 
less as dead leaves. Many of these 
dear ones have fallen by the wayside 



under the banner of friendship, love 
and truth, yet, others have come, not 
only to fill the places made vacant by 
these absent ones, but to make new 
ranks, until now we number more 
than eighteen thousand. 

To you who are new in the field 
and to those who shall, in the future, 
espouse our cause, as long as we 
shall stand a power in the state, I, 
also, dedicate this book, with the one 
hope that in its contents may be 
found some rays of light, some 
crumbs of comfort, some incentive 
to keep you ever with us in our en- 
deavor to make smooth the pathway 
of the unfortunate. 



Address Hade by the Author Before 
Some of the Kansas Lodges in Behalf of 
the Proposed Kansas Home. 



The mountains are clothed with 
majesty; their lofty peaks tower 
above the clouds, their ranges stretch 
out through space in long rocky 
crags of greatest sublimity or in ver- 
dure clad serries of exquisite and ro- 
mantic grace. The grandeur of sea 
and ocean, the beauty of the valley, 
the shimmering surface of pellucid 
lakes, the rush of foaming torrents 
and babbling brooks fill, throughout, 
the length and breadth of the land. 
As far as the eye of man can see, as 
far as his wandering foot can pene- 



trate, he finds new beauties, new and 
gratifying surprises in the world of 
Nature. There is the wild luxury 
of the tropics, the brilliant Aurora 
Borealis and the azure tints of ice- 
bergs and glaciers at the poles, and 
the never-ending variety that minis- 
ters to the five senses, in the middle 
zones. Yet, not one of these units, 
nor all of them, collectively, are 
worth one pang of sorrow of the 
least one of God's Human family. 
We may study every branch of 
mathematics, from the simplest 
mental problems of the fundamental 
rules, to the branch that makes it 
child's play to compute the distances 
of the planets from us, and the 
course and time of their rotations; 
we may dip into science until the 
component parts of rocks and min- 
erals, with their growth from the 
tiniest atom, are an open book to 
uSj until the minutest part of every 
flower is known by name and func- 
tion, until every living thing that 



6 



creepeth upon the Earth or is hid 
away in the depth of the sea is as 
familiar to us as the passing of the 
night and the coming of the morn- 
ing; we may know the fields of. lit- 
erature as we know our own back 
yards, but, when all this has been ac- 
complished, if we have no deep 
knowledge of the workings of man's 
heart, the yearnings of man's soul, 
the needs of man's physical, mental 
and spiritual nature, we are cold, 
weak and worthless. We are a body 
in which an intellectual brain, qnly, 
has been developed; an abnormality, 
not fit for the practical purposes of 
this world, nor prepared to be grad- 
uated into the higher life beyond 
the grave. 

It was the immortal Pope who 
declared that "The greatest study of 
mankind is man." While it is true 
that at the present day there is a 
tendency to criticism, a marked in- 
clination to tear our neighbor's rep- 
utation to shreds, to get as much out 



of a man for as little as possible, yet, 
in spite of all this, the weather-beat- 
en remark that the world is grow- 
ing worse is not only untrue, but 
fearfully so. 

Go back in history to the medi- 
aeval Caligula and Nero and follow 
down to the comparatively modern 
times of Henry VIII, Bloody Mary 
and even Elizabeth, and, not only, 
will we not dare to say the world is 
growing worse, but, however biased 
or narrow we may be, we shall be 
obliged to admit that the world is 
growing better, and that each year 
makes the moral condition and sur- 
rounding of the world so much bet- 
ter, that the time is even now star- 
ing us in the face, when man shall 
be considered his brother's keeper, 
when man shall be man's brother, 
and when no man shall hoard up 
vast wealth at the expense of his 
-brother who earns his bread, not by 
the sweat of his brow, which is an 
honest and happy thing, but by the 



8 



blood of heart and brain. 

In the dark ages, when war was 
man's sole occupation, and rare in- 
tervals of peace his greatest luxury, 
defeat in war meant rapine, murder 
and slavery for the defeated. Slavery 
is no stigma on the African race, for 
the fairest and most cultured races 
have served as slaves. The Goth, 
the Celt, the Greek, even the Rom- 
an, himself, toiled as slave or drove 
as master, as he was defeated or 
victorious. Out of such awful con- 
ditions came the cry for more hu- 
mane dealings, and, by very gradual 
degrees, man's life was brought up 
to a higher plane. Out of the grow- 
ing need and demand for a better 
and higher state of existence, grew, 
in our modern times, such orders as 
the Masons, Knights of Pythias, 
Odd-Fellows and others, with their 
different branches. The primary 
principles and ultimate results of 
these various organizations is the 
same, but, as Odd-Fellows, it is 



more particularly of their work that 
we speak to-day. 

When you consider that eighty- 
three years ago the order consisted 
of five members, men, and that, to- 
day, Kansas alone has thirty thou- 
sand subordinate Odd-Fellows and 
fifteen thousand Rebekah Odd-Fel- 
lows; that Kansas is but one of the 
forty-eight states that represent the 
order; that it flourishes in every 
country abroad and in the islands 
of the sea, you will recognize that it 
has come to stay, and statistics will 
not make this fact any more impres- 
sive to you. It may help you, how- 
ever, to comprehend what a power 
we are if you think that every state 
in the Union has enough Odd-Fel- 
lows, male and female, to make a 
large city. Think of the charities, 
the schools, the public institutions, 
the improvements a city keeps up 
and you will realize what the Odd- 
Fellows of any state may do, if they 
will. What they do, in reality, ac- 

10 



complish each year is beyond the 
power of anyone's tongue to tell. 

How do you hold the attention of 
your members? the uninitiated may 
ask. What means do you employ 
to hold them interested in the cause 
and keep them from growing apa- 
thetic? It is because of the wisdom 
of the early founders, who, when 
they laid the foundation, placed no 
material there that could be coroded 
by the calumny of evil, no quality 
that could crumble in the atmosphere 
of selfishness and jealousy. They 
laid their foundation stones of 
friendship and love,, everlastingly 
cemented together with truth, and, 
upon the whole, they erected the 
house beautiful of charity. That is 
why we have Odd-Fellows enough 
to build a greater Boston or a Phila- 
delphia and have a few small cities 
left over. 

We will have to admit that, in all 
these years of ministrations to the 
sick, the afflicted, the broken-heart- 

11 



eel, the helpless, the good work has 
been marred by mistakes. Just as it 
is sometimes true that a man may 
build up a most beautiful home for 
himself and family, fill it with works 
of art and luxury, lavish gifts of 
value on his wife and children, while 
some deserving relative is toiling 
from early dawn to late into the 
night to keep the souls and bodies of 
his family together, so individual 
lodges have drifted into the habit of 
getting rich, and doing nothing to 
lighten the burdens of their mem- 
bers beyond the rigid accomplish- 
ment of duties, as prescribed by their 
by-laws. These lodges have built 
fine halls, filled them with expensive 
furniture, with sumptuous staff par- 
aphernalia of richest silks and finest 
velvets, with jewels and garnishings 
that represent mints of money. Yet, 
some of these lodges, after burying 
dead brothers, instead of mingling 
their tears with those of the wid- 
owed women left behind, have left 

12 



them to shed their tears alone into 
the unresponsive depths of the wash 
tub, and feel that, when they have 
left a Thanksgiving turkey at the 
doers of such afflicted ones, a few 
calico dresses and jeans pants for the 
children at Christmas time, they are 
justified in getting a new velvet robe 
for the Noble Grand. They vote five 
hundred dollars out of the treasury 
for a piano for the lodge room, and 
five dollars to help buy a sewing ma- 
chine for the widow, or to pay the 
interest on some poor, mind haras- 
sed brother's mortgage. Do not 
glare at me, and say I am unjust to 
the order. I am not. I am only 
painting some things as they have 
existed and do exist. I shall soon 
give you the celebration and the fire- 
works. I shall speak of the things 
that lodge aggrandizement led to, 
the result and the reforms. I will, 
however, say right here, that I could 
tell of numerous cases where lodges 
have gone to the home of a sick 

13 



brother, and have planted his crop 
for him or gathered in his harvest; 
of lodges that have educated the 
orphan and bought homes for help- 
less brothers or their widows. These 
are but the concerted action of single 
lodges and not that of the great or- 
ganization as a whole. Of this we 
shall soon speak. 

Of the state organization in the 
past I could tell of orphans who 
were left to roam the streets in pov- 
erty, to drink in the vile lessons 
taught them about the doors of low 
haunts, to acquire habits of vicious- 
ness that it may take years of moral 
courage and fortitude to break up. 
They become a menace to the good 
children of a community, and be- 
come thoroughly corrupted while 
lodges are squabbling whether they 

shall board with Mr. , whose 

influence is not of the best, but who 
will keep them for two dollars a 
week, whether they shall be sent to 
the country, where they can work 

14 



for their board and attend winter 
school, or whether it would be best 

to place them with Widow , who 

cannot board them for less than 
three dollars, but who can bring 
them into environment and a home 
atmosphere that will go far towards 
bringing them to a worthy manhood 
and womanhood. 

Go to the state lodge reports of 
the past years and you may read, 
worth of lodge property so many 
hundreds of thousands, relief of 
members so many tens of thousands, 
care of the widow and orphans so 
many thousand, and this I assert to 
be true. The largest per cent of the 
tens of thousands for the relief of 
members is the weekly benefits that 
are fixed by law, and that no lodge 
could ignore and hold its charter. It 
was because of such mistakes and 
golden opportunities that Odd-Fel- 
lows all over the world began to 
think, then to talk, and, finally, to 
act. Had they lived up to the re- 

15 



quirements of their by-laws? As a 
rule, yes. Had they lived up to the 
possibilities of the beauties of their 
ritualistic lessons, that fell upon 
their ears in the lodge room once a 
week, fifty-two times a year ? By no 
means. That was evident to the 
most thoughtless. Outside of what 
they owed to those who were banded 
together with them, did they, as a 
great and mighty army of men and 
women, owe anything to the world 
at large; was it their duty, from a 
standpoint of wealth, numbers and 
intellect to be a moral force in the 
land ? Yes. The very conditions of 
the world made it an offense for any 
mighty organization of the people to 
exist without being a force for the 
elevation of morals and manners. 
From the time when one man could 
sell both bodies and souls of scores 
of human beings, to the time when 
a man could sell only his own body 
and soul, conditions had, of course, 
been gradually improving, and a 

16 



time had arrived when the atmos- 
phere demanded that men should 
cease to look calmly on while other 
men went to the dogs, that they 
should lead them to the development 
of the highest and best in them, and 
to the greatest cultivation of that 
highest and best. It was evident 
that a problem lay before Odd-Fel- 
lowship, and when they sought a so- 
lution for it, the word home stood 
out in bold relief and dazzling il- 
luminations in the minds of the ques- 
tioners. The first man and woman 
in creation had a home of surpass- 
ing loveliness. It came direct from 
the hand of God. The Divine mind 
worked out the thought of that first 
home. 

The Esquimeau builds him a home 
of ice, the Indian one of skins or 
boughs, the Hottentot one of mud, 
the bird one of hair and down and 
twigs, the rabbit a cellar home lined 
with its own soft fur, the ant a most 
intricate insect palace. Whether lofty 

17 



or lowly, large or small, imposing 
or insignificant, the first instinct of 
the lower animal, the first thought 
of the human is to provide a home, 
a retreat from the great world, a 
place that shall be his very own, 
where rest can be enjoyed and young 
properly reared. Home ! The name 
has ever been associated in all lands 
and at all times with those of mother 
and Heaven. 

The Earth is dotted with thou- 
sands and thousands of cities, towns 
and hamlets, and what are they? Ag- 
gregations of homes. If anyone 
uses the expression, "My home is 
where my hat is off," and means it, 
it is an indication of a cold, dull na- 
ture. Most often this quotation is 
used to cover up the heart longing of 
the homeless man or woman, for the 
human yearning is always for a 
home, and even though mid pleas- 
ures and palaces, however far and 
wide one may roam, no spot and no 
place can fill that of home, however 

18 



humble the cottage may be. 

For individual lodges to establish 
and maintain homes for all of their 
needy ones was clearly impossible, 
but each organization, through the 
efforts of its many members, could 
build and maintain one home, where 
healthy food, clean, sanitary rooms, 
good schooling and pure moral in- 
struction could be obtained. The 
thought was father to the deed, so 
much so that, to-day, there are but 
few states without a home for the 
orphan and indigent aged. I will 
venture the assertion that in such 
states there is no old man or woman, 
no helpless orphan, coming under 
the jurisdiction of the order, but 
who is provided for most bountiful- 
ly; for our order is so well organ- 
ized, and worked so systematically, 
that not one child would be able to 
slip away out of the range of the 
careful eye of the lodge. 

The building of these homes in 
the different states and the main- 

19 



tenance of them after they have 
been established has come to be the 
one absorbing theme with the order. 
The unimportance of petty points of 
law and the time that was once con- 
sidered necessary to their discussion 
have given way to the study of ways 
and means for keeping up the homes 
and rearing the inmates, not only in 
a way that shall comply with the let- 
ter of Odd-Fellow law, but in such a 
manner that they shall be the best 
possible citizens, with characters so 
broadened and strengthened for the 
higher things of life, that they will 
make an impression on the moral at- 
mosphere surrounding them. 

The London Times recognized the 
importance of building such charac- 
ter when it printed in its columns 
the following sentiment : 

"That which raises a country, 
that which strengthens a country, 
and that which dignifies a country — 
that which spreads her power, cre- 
ates her moral influence, and makes 

20 



her respected and submitted to — the 
instrument of obedience, the foun- 
tain of supremacy, the true throne, 
crown and scepter of a nation — this 
aristocracy is not an aristocracy of 
blood, not an aristocracy of fashion, 
not an artistocracy of talent only; 
it is an aristocracy of character. 
That is the true heraldry of man." 

To quote from a most excellent 
work : "The crown and glory of life 
is character. It is human nature in 
its best form. The strength, the in- 
dustry and the civilization of nations 
and the very foundations of civil se- 
curity rest upon it." 

These are strong words, and it 
was such thoughts that made me 
realize that the Odd-Fellow, in edu- 
cating and surrounding with the in- 
fluences of home the orphan of his 
dead brother, was not only doing his 
loving duty, but reaping a thousand- 
fold reward, not more in the peace- 
ful consciousness of having done 
good and righteous acts, than from 

21 



the amount he has added to the 
strength, industry and civilization of 
nations. If the Odd-Fellows edu- 
cate and establish in life some help- 
less orphan, what a tremendous force 
they have started to moving in the 
world through the leverage of their 
homes. The educated, well-trained 
one sheds the light and strength of 
his character into the lives of the 
members of his family, they, in turn, 
each do the same by their respective 
families, and so this force goes on, 
from year to year, from one genera- 
tion to the next like an arithmetical 
progression. 

Let us suppose that the order 
should leave a child uncared for, un- 
protected. For an example we will 
let him fall to the lowest depths to 
which a man can descend, and, after 
having been a menace and a terror to 
his community, we will see him safe- 
ly housed in the penitentiary for life, 
while the wife and children of his 
murdered victim cry out in the agony 

22 



of their souls. In this case the order 
has failed to fulfill its vows and 
moral obligations. It has missed 
that sense of joy that comes from a 
privilege and a duty performed; it 
has thoughtlessly but surely wrecked 
that man's life, and cast a shadow 
over the lives of many with whom 
he has come in contact; it has been 
an enemy to the public good in al- 
lowing a bad element to flourish 
which it might have moulded for 
good; it has been an enemy to the 
government in that it has, perhaps, 
let loose a worthless wretch to help 
drain the public treasury. 

Did you ever consider that when 
enough good influences have been 
built up to overpower the evil, so 
that penitentiaries, prisons, reforma- 
tories, etc., can be, if not abolished, 
at least made fewer, the government 
would have more money to spend 
for better things? It might not be 
available for the needy, yet there 
could come a day and a condition 

23 



when public money shall be used for 
this class, a time, when in its own 
defence the government will rear the 
unfortunate to be a bulwark to its 
own walls. But, if this time has not 
yet arrived, if it is still too Utopian 
a dream, the public money had bet- 
ter go into post-offices, battle ships 
or the re-enlarging of the White 
House than into penitentiaries or 
lawsuits. 

Kansas, up to this time, has no 
established home, but she is well on 
her way to one. This is not only a 
matter for rejoicing, but one to 
touch the pride of the order in the 
state, for we have such wealth, such 
numerical strength in the state that 
smaller jurisdictions, already equip- 
ped with well-managed homes, are 
watching us and wondering when 
we are going to fall in line. This is 
why it should be a matter to touch 
our pride; one reason why we can- 
not afford to let this matter drag 
along ; one reason why we must push 

24 



it to a rapid fulfillment. Kansas is 
not wholly to blame in this matter. 
Years ago the De Boissiere Home 
was accepted, thousands of dollars 
spent on it, and enthusiasm ran high 
in both Grand Lodge and Assembly. 
But the course of things did not run 
smoothly there, and, now, both home 
and money are gone. While this is 
to be regretted and is discouraging, 
it is not going to be any great damp- 
er to the courage of Kansas Odd- 
Fellows, who arise, Phoenix like, 
out of the ashes of lost endeavors. 
We cannot afford to be crushed un- 
der adversity. "He that will do no 
good offices after a disappointment 
must stand still and do just nothing 
at all. The plow goes on after a bar- 
ren year, and while the ashes are yet 
warm we raise new houses on the 
ruins of the former/' 

I wish you could have been in At- 
lantic City with me at the time the 
Sovereign Grand Lodge met there. 
That supremely lovable woman, Sis- 

25 



ter Morrison, matron and superin- 
tendent of the Lincoln, 111., Odd- 
Fellows Home, was present at a 
lodge meeting where there were rep- 
resentatives from every state in the 
Union and from Canada. Almost 
every man present was a grand rep- 
resentative, while some were past 
grand sirs or other officers, and al- 
most every woman was an assembly 
president, past president, or other 
officer, past or present. 

Mrs. Morrison was called upon to 
talk about the Home. She arose and 
modestly made the statement that 
she was not a speaker, but, for love 
of her work, she would, as well as 
she was able, try to throw a light on 
the life that was lived by the inmates 
of the Home. Out of the abundance 
of a full heart she talked, quietly, 
without any effort at oratory. In a 
simple conversational way she told 
j'bout her children. She told of the 
little fatherless and motherless waifs 
that were brought to her. She told 

26 



of the way in which they expanded 
and developed under the cheering 
and healthful atmosphere of the 
home life; she told of the budding 
of talents and warm affections; she 
told of pitiful scenes, of" new infants, 
who, could they live to be a hundred 
years old, could never feel the touch 
of a mother's pure lips, to whom the 
word mother could never be anything 
but a word, unless, in God's provi- 
dence, the blessing of motherhood 
should someday fall upon them; she 
told of the school, of the Christmas 
joys, of the little heartaches and the 
little gladnesses, until tears stood in 
her own eyes, and until, in that con- 
course of people, who had traveled 
much and learned to school their 
feelings, there was hardly a dry eye. 
I wish I could make you see the 
time at the Sovereign Grand Lodge, 
of Dallas, Texas, when the orphans 
from the Odd-Fellow Honie were 
brought before the members of that 
most august body, and, with their 

27 



sweet childish voices, sang "Home, 
Home, Sweet Home." That was an- 
other occasion when men's eyes were 
wet. 

I know of a case that happened in 
another state, far from Kansas. An 
Odd-Fellow's son was left an or- 
phan at the age of nine years. From 
that age he was a street imp. No 
brighter intellect e^er existed. On 
one occasion his father's lodge gave 
fifteen dollars towards his support. 
All of the schooling that he ever had 
would not exceed four years, but, so 
naturally bright was his intellect 
that he picked up a big amount of 
desultory knowledge, but natural vi- 
vacity led him in the wrong direc- 
tion and at twenty-one he was a 
physical and moral wreck. Consider 
what the life of such a boy might 
have been had he been in a home 
under the influence of such a woman 
as Mrs. Morrison, or hundreds of 
those in the order in our own state. 

Do you not see the weight of our 

28 



moral responsibility and realize that 
we should be unremitting in our 
labors until we have our home es- 
tablished and our children in it? 
Have we any children in this state 
of sunny Kansas to place in such a 
home ? Aye ! That we have ! I have 
seen them. I have an actual knowl- 
edge of them. I heard of them and 
saw them when I was state president 
and made tours among the lodges. 
And I saw what was, in a sense, 
worse. That was the old children, 
the pitiful old babies of seventy-five 
and eighty. They had struggled 
through the world most manfully, 
and, when they had nothing to pit 
against the grim, gray pitilessness 
of the world but tottering steps and 
aching limbs, their lot was made a 
still bitterer irony because they had 
not the wherewithal to buy even the 
smallest necessaries of life. 

I had the pleasure of taking up an 
eighty-nine dollar collection in the 
Grand Lodge of Kansas for one of 

29 



these poor, infirm Rebekahs, a sweet, 
lovable woman, whose one trust was 
that, although she might be indi- 
gent, painfully so, up to the day of 
her death, the Odd-Fellows would 
not let her die in the poor-house. 

Oh, that dread of the poor-house ! 
I have never felt it and you never 
have. Would to Heaven that we 
could each one feel the cruel pangs 
of it for an instant, that we might 
know the keen anguish in the hearts 
of the very poor. I knew an old lady 
whose feelings had been so> subdued 
and bowed down that nothing, ap- 
parently, could touch an emotion in 
her or bring a tear to her eye, yet, 
when someone brutally mentioned 
the poor-house to her she broke 
down and wept, not the silent tears 
of a person whose feelings are well- 
schooled, but the sobbing, gasping, 
heart agonizing wails of a little 
child, whose tender feelings have 
been cut through and through. 

Before going to the subject of our 

30 



own proposed homes, I beg to con- 
sider the case of the old people. How 
many times is a man fortunate all 
through the years of his prime and, 
when old age overtakes him, through 
some unavoidable cause, adversity 
also overtakes him, and, in addition 
to the infirmities of old age, he must 
sufier the hardships of penury. His 
home is lost and sometimes his 
friends with it. Perhaps he has been 
one of the most active in watching 
over the sick, in burying the dead, 
and in caring for the lonely and af- 
flicted, yet, through adversity, he 
must be disunited from his beloved 
order. How blessed a thought that 
we shall soon have a home to take in 
such specimens of manhood and 
womanhood. How much more bless- 
ed the thought that this home is no 
charity institution, but one in which 
these old people have a financial in- 
terest. The poor-house is a charity 
and not even a warm one, but the 
most cold and calculating one possi- 
ble of conception ; a charity growing 

31 



out of the fact that it is better to 
make such people public charges than 
to allow them to be public vagrants, 
cheaper to farm them out at the 
poor-house than to board them in in- 
dividual families. But as cold as 
this charity is, it is not as cold as 
that sometimes bestowed on these 
helpless ones by those of their own 
blood. There is no child so help- 
less as the worn-out, buffetted 
saddened old man or woman. It 
is an easy matter to get a home, 
though it may be an indifferent 
one, for the orphan child. Its 
bright winning ways attract, and 
there may be the underlying thought 
that the work that the fresh young 
physique may be able to stand will 
pay for the raising, but what work 
could one get from the rheumatic 
aged man or woman? Everyone is 
sorry for them in an abstract sort of 
way, but no one wants them. Let 
them be turned out to die like old 
cart horses. Is it any wonder that 

32 



we are in a hurry to establish our 
home for the aged, these old broth- 
ers and sisters, who have been fa- 
thers and mothers just like you and 
me; who have given birth to bright 
hopes and fond aspirations, but who, 
in bitterness of spirit, have seen them 
wither and die, as I hope our cher- 
ished plans may not? 

Let us look at this home question 
from a selfish point of view and see if 
we can discover any possible benefits 
to accrue to us. The orphan un- 
cared for, left to the devices of his 
own heart and the evil influence of 
the rabble may come to a fine man- 
hood or womanhood; the probabil- 
ity is that such a one will become a 
besotted beast. In that case he is a 
curse to himself, to his people, to the 
public, and would be to a lodge if he 
could gain admittance to its ranks. 
"His father was an Odd-Fellow," 
men will say. "Little they have 
done for his son. I think that I shall 
never care to join such an order/' 

33 



But the boys whom we shall edu- 
cate in our home, and, later, estab- 
lish in life, will be the very cream 
for future membership, will they 
not? These fine young men and 
women, too, will go out into the 
world and wield the same kind of 
influence that we gain from any 
good upright citizen. From the very 
condition of things every one of 
them will be Odd-Fellows and Re- 
bekahs. You could not keep them 
out of the order. You sometimes 
have to beg a man or a woman to 
join your lodge. In our home we 
will be training Odd-Fellows and 
Rebekahs, boys and girls who will 
wait impatiently for the proper age 
and then beg to be taken into the or- 
der. Not only will they come in, 
but every wife and husband and 
every child of these marriages will 
come in, and their children's children 
after them. 

While the collecting of money to 
establish and maintain our home and 

34 



the raising of our first orphans will 
be an enormous expense, we must 
bear in mind the future years, when 
our early struggles have passed 
away, and the many whom we have 
raised are out in the world, and have 
paid us a hundredfold financially, in 
the swelling of the ranks of our or- 
der, and in the added dignity and re- 
spect that our action has won from 
the world. Reason from the attrib- 
utes of your own soul and answer 
the question, "Will any orphan 
whom we have brought to a perfect 
and successful manhood be satisfied 
with simply joining the order?" You 
know that, in one way, our home 
will be his home throughout life, and 
that it will be one of his pleasures to 
make it a sharer of his purse. True, 
there will be those who will do noth- 
ing material for it, but, out in life 
there are people who send their par- 
ents to the poor-house. There will 
always be exceptions to all rules, 



35 



but, thank God, they will be excep- 
tions only. 

What we can count on twenty-five 
years from now is fully one- fourth 
of the whole support from the very 
ones who have been raised in our 
Home. There will come a time when 
there will be endowments from those 
who have been reared. We can very 
reasonably look beyond the sowing 
to a glorious reaping time. 

Now, dear sisters and brothers, 
the question confronting us is, can 
we afford to wait much longer ? Con- 
sider that the days of man are as the 
grass, "as a flower of the field so he 
flourisheth. The wind passeth over 
him and he is gone." Every day that 
we remain inactive in this matter is 
like the loss of so much gold. Life 
is so short at best, and we are slug- 
gishly letting its beautiful years drift 
from us without doing this work 
that shall be as a monument to us 
generations after our youngest mem- 
ber sleeps under the sod. 

36 



I have given selfish reasons why 
the state organization might profit- 
ably take up this work. I can give 
your lodge and every other one a 
selfish reason why it should take it 
up. Some day these homes will be 
reared and in thorough working or- 
der. We have gone too far to re- 
tract. We may move slowly, but 
we shall move onward all of the 
time. Then, when the great fulfill- 
ment comes, it will be a pride and 
joy and blessing to be able' to say : 
"We were identified with this move 
from the start." 

But we are not going to work for 
selfish reasons, because the unselfish 
ones are so many more and so much 
stronger; and because it will give us 
something in the order to satisfy 
the longing of the great mother- 
heart in its love for helpless little 
ones, and to fill the desire of the 
great father-heart in its reaching out 
for the something to care for and 
protect. 

37 



Memory Gems. 

"By their fruits ye shall know 
them. Roses do not grow on thistles, 
nor do figs grow on thorns. Neither 
can the life of a professed Odd-Fel- 
low produce the rich fruits of friend- 
ship, love and truth if his heart is 
filled with the vile seeds of jealousy, 
envy and malice." 

The above beautifully expressed 
sentiment contains a life lesson. Such 
a memory gem might be learned by 
every Odd-Fellow, man or woman, 
to his or her lasting benefit. Why do 
we not, as members, learn some 
beautiful lines of prose or poetry for 
each meeting night. It is the pen- 
alty of an evil life and the blessing 
of a pure one, to think. That rest- 

38 



less guardian of the body, the mind, 
is ever on the alert, even in sleep, 
which it peoples with spectral visions 
and thoughts. Since, then, we must 
think, if we are to grow nobler, if 
we are to be a tower of strength to 
the age in which we live, we must 
think pure and lofty thoughts, and 
nothing can cultivate this habit bet- 
ter than to memorize the writings of 
men and women whose life work 
was to write the grandest of senti- 
ments in the purest of English. 

What could be more unique and 
fitting than for the Noble Grand to 
call upon the members at the open- 
ing of the meeting, for the memory 
gem, which she shall have chosen 
herself on the evening of the prev- 
ious meeting. 

Suppose she has chosen for you 
to learn the lines : 

"Get leave to work. 
In this world 'tis the best you get at 
all." 

And when called upon you all re- 

39 



peat it in concert and with anima- 
tion, do you fancy that, with such 
words ringing in your heads, you 
could have a dull evening? Don't 
you think the sick would be called 
on, the orphan cared for, and the 
widow's tears wiped away with 
something more soothing to the 
touch than newspaper articles? 

If your memory gem should be, 
"Heaven lies about us in our in- 
fancy," wouldn't there be a whole- 
sale struggle, in your lodge, to es- 
cape from the toils of selfishness that 
entangle us adult mortals ? Wouldn't 
there be a desire to live the loving 
life of childhood combined with the 
wisdom of mature years, that you 
might live nearer Heaven? 

Suppose your memory gem were: 

"And whether crowned or crown- 
less, 

When I fall- 
It matters not, so as God's work is 
done." 
Lodge elections would be less 

40 



fierce in some localities, and the final 
result would leave no sting. There 
would be more desire to work be- 
cause we are doing something for 
God; whether we work as high pri- 
vates wouldn't so much matter. 

We aren't a religious body, you 
say. True! That is, we are not a 
sect, but we are doing God's work; 
if not, our vows are falsehoods and 
our rituals reproaches to us. 

Learn and repeat in concert the 
following : 
"The true friend is not he who holds 

up flattery's mirror, 
In which the face to thy conceit most 

pleasing hovers — 
But he who kindly shows thee all 

thy vices, sirrah! 
And helps thee mend them e'er an 
enemy discovers." 

And, while discussion may and 
should come up in your lodge rooms, 
dissensions will not. While the 
words that prove a difference of 
opinion may be forcible and unmis- 

41 



takable in their meaning, they will 
be kind and courteous, never rude, 
insulting or cutting. 

Remember, my sisters and broth- 
ers, that in this life we cannot stand 
still. We must advance or retreat, 
live higher or lower, nobler or more 
ignoble, morally better or morally 
worse. We drift sometimes, but we 
drift in the wrong directions. Sel- 
fishness, with all its attendant evils, 
are situated down the current. It 
takes work to go up the current to- 
wards friendship, love and truth, and 
the other moral virtues. So, my 
brothers and sisters, we must not 
drift, we must not think in, but out, 
we must not look earthward, but 
heavenward, if we are to seek God's 
blessing through the good we do our 
brother. 



42 



Thoughts hy the Wayside. 



Help us to sail under the banner 
of truth and to assail falseness on 
all sides, and if there be any who 
think evil of our course, let the "evil 
be to him who evil thinks." 



In my readings lately I came 
across the following beautiful lines 
of Joanna Baillie : 

"Friendship is not a plant of hasty 
growth, 

Tho' planted in esteem's deep fixed 
soil, 

The gradual culture of kind inter- 
course 
Must bring it to perfection." 

43 



If we read these lines over and 
over, we may learn from them how 
to gain that friendship we so crave 
from the members of our own lodge. 
It is not reasonable to think we must 
have it simply because we have join- 
ed an order, the principles of which 
are founded on friendship, love and 
truth. Our brothers and sisters may 
have charity for us, and treat us 
kindly, and, yet, not feel a deep 
friendship for us unless we awaken 
it ourselves. We must cultivate those 
qualities that will bring us esteem, 
then we must have kindly associa- 
tion with each other. We must not 
indulge in that pernicious habit of 
saying hateful things behind each 
other's backs. Do we ever do it? 

We must not say to each other 
nor in lodge, the words that have a 
sting. Are we witty and inclined to 
force our wit on the lodge? 

Let us suppress this doubtful gift, 
for wit must, always does hurt 
someone. Let us ponder on the cor- 

44 



nerstones of our order, until we have 
naught but gentle words, kind deeds 
and generous thoughts. 

These would make lodge divine. 
Do not say, "others in our lodge do 
not follow this course/' What of 
that? Your duty is none the less. 
See that you follow it. Remember 
how great a thing is example. I leave 
with you three beautiful sentiments. 
Learn them by heart, and let them 
sometimes be your monitors. 

"Friendship is like the sun's eter- 
nal rays; not daily benefits exhausts 
the flame : It still is going and still 
burns the same." — Gay. 

"Truth crushed to earth shall rise 
again, 

The eternal years of God are 
hers." 

— Bryant. 
"Love is the ladder on which we 
climb to a likeness with God." 



A dear friend of mine, and a good 
45 



Rebekah, in a despondent moment, 
said that none of us lived up to our 
vows and that she had decided that 
none of us can get to Heaven 
through a lodge. I wonder if we 
have not all had the same discourag- 
ing thought. But is it a just one? 
Should we blame the lodge for faults 
that lie within ourselves ? We cannot 
get to Heaven on the skirts of any 
lodge or any church, nor on the vir- 
tues of a friend, nor by simply read- 
ing the Bible. The power to reach 
Heaven lies in ourselves through the 
redeeming grace of a loving Sav- 
iour. It is not the lodge that can 
form our characters. It is we, who 
should so build up our characters as 
to make the lodge a Christian pre- 
cinct, and a place full of loveliness 
and grace. 



I will venture to say that nine- 
tenths of our lodge troubles, our 
non-interest, our lodge-heartaches, 
the deaths of our lodges are caused 

46 



by an attribute, of which every true 
man and woman should be thor- 
oughly and heartily ashamed — a 
characteristic that belongs in the cat- 
egory of sins; the sin of jealousy. 
Sister and brother, your conscience 
tells you when your heart is palpitat- 
ing with the black blood of jealousy. 
Go to the lodge room alone, read all 
the beautiful things in the ritual, the 
odes, the prayers, the vows ; think of 
the night when you placed your hand 
on the most holy book and repeated, 
in all earnestness, those most solemn 
and binding obligations. If you har- 
bor jealousy, you are false to those 
words that you spoke. There is a. 
strong term that is sometimes ap- 
plied to the false person, that you 
never want applied to you. 

Read and think of these matters 
seriously, and all jealousy and the 
evil that it engenders will leave your 
hearts, and you, who might cause 
troublesome factions and division in 
your lodge will, instead, be the means 

47 



of building it up and making it like 
a fair city placed upon a hill, a joy to 
all who behold it. 



Keep at work. Give lodge mem- 
bers something to do. My mother 
always told me that "Satan finds 
some mischief still for idle hands to 
do." In lodges, unless the members 
have something to do, the time hon- 
ored gentleman referred to generally 
sends the charter and effects to head- 
quarters. So keep at work. One 
thing you can always do is to work 
for the poor, whether they are of 
you or not. The Master has said : 
"The poor ye have always with 
you." 

Surely He would not have called 
our attention to them had He not 
wished us to care for them. 

Of course, the lodge meetings 
must be made bright and cheerful to 
draw out the members. For this we 
have "Good of the order," and it 
has, wisely, been put in the right 

48 



place. Coming after the bulk of the 
business has been transacted, it 
comes as a panacea for all bitter 
words, dissentions or any unpleas- 
antness that may have arisen, and, 
conducted properly, should put the 
members in such a happy frame of 
mind that they will bring up under 
miscellaneous business every impor- 
tant thing that can build up the 
lodge, and leave to die everything 
that could cause trouble. 

If you cannot make a speech make 
a quotation. You will be the better 
educated for the effort you have 
made to learn it. How appropriate 
such sentiments as : 

"The greatest preparation for do- 
ing great things is to be faithful in 
little ones." 

"If love could have her way there 
would never be another tear shed on 
Earth." 

"The man who has the courage to 
admit that he has been in the wrong 
is not a coward." 

49 



"No man can be happy without 
sharing it with somebody." 

"If we could only know how much 
people have suffered, how easy it 
would be to love them." 

"Life is not worth living unless 
you live it for someone else." 

"When we are alone we have our 
thoughts to watch ; in the family, our 
tempers ; in society, our tongues." 
— Hannah More. 

"There is evil enough in man, God 
knows ! But it is not the mission of 
every man and woman to detail and 
report it all. Keep the atmosphere 
as pure as possible, and fragrant 
with gentleness and charity." — Dr. 
John Hall. 

"Charity, as organized in the fra- 
ternities, has none of the sting that 
goes with the charity from a strang- 
er. Each has done his portion to- 
ward creating the fund, and is able 
to take it without feeling a pauper." 



Rebekahism has grown more since 
50 



the establishment of homes for the 
indigent and aged Odd-Fellow and 
his wife, and the homes for the or- 
phaned ones of the order. Since our 
lodges have been made direct auxil- 
iaries, to aid the subordinates in 
maintaining these homes, there is 
not a woman in the order, but who 
will work for an orphanage, because 
it touches the mother love in her 
heart. In working for these homes 
we find a great central purpose that 
we did not have several years ago; 
and the very women who once ask- 
ed, "What is Rebekahism for? I do 
not see the benefit of it," have now 
put their shoulders to the wheel, be- 
cause there is something to work 
for. 

I believe that our doors should be 
open to all good women, just on ac- 
count of mother love, the only nat- 
ural affection. Noble women will 
flock into our order, just because 
there are helpless and homeless chil- 
dren to work for. 

51 



Do you know why everyone's 
sometime dream of Arcadian love- 
liness has never been realized? Do 
you know why Earth has no Utopia ? 
Can you tell me why the millennium 
is still so far away that the eye of 
the soul cannot catch its faintest 
gleaming? It is because we have 
not yet that all powerful love that is 
of God. Examine your hearts and 
you will find that love is crushed out 
of all semblance to itself, and beyond 
recognition behind a great unsightly 
barrier of selfishness. I am just as 
bad as the rest. It may be, though, 
that I am where I can look myself 
square in the face and say : 

"I know you. What you call jus- 
tice is simply selfishness, and if you 
would only let that poor little atom 
of love crowd out from beneath that 
selfishness it would soon grow large 
enough, by the aid of your con- 
science, to tell you what justice is." 

When we all reach the point 
where we know ourselves, we will 

52 



be in condition to expand morally 
and spiritually, and to help forward 
that much needed universal atmos- 
phere of love, eternal love. 



I have read that, "In all things 
throughout the world, the men who 
look for the crooked will find the 
crooked, and the men who look for 
the straight will see the straight." 
Let us add that, if, in a body of peo^ 
pie, some see in a thing the crooked, 
and others, the straight, the latter 
class, by fortitude and moral cour- 
age can convert the former class, and 
then the undivided whole can 
straighten what little crookedness 
may exist. 



53 



Three Golden LinKs. 



This address was delivered by 
Past-President Adelaide Wayland, 
at the following Kansas towns : 

Barnes, Waterville, Blue Rapids, 
Baileyville, Oneida, Sabellha, Sen- 
eca, Hiawatha, Troy, Kansas City, 
Armourdale, Nortonville, Topeka, 
Lawrence, Burlingame, Scranton, 
Olathe, Oswego-, Cogeyville, Inde- 
pendence, Kingman, Wichita, Hal- 
stead, Clyde, Concordia, Jewell City, 
Ionia, Cawker, Beloit, Gaylord, Os- 
borne, Downs, Stockton, Minneap- 
olis, Manhattan, Junction City, 
Louisville, Fredonia, Cummings, 
Garnett, Ellsworth, Salina, Mar- 
quette, Randolph, Holton, Melvern, 
Clifton, Cuba. 

It was also delivered, in part, at 
Atlantic City, New Jersey. 

54 



Three Golden LinKs. 



In the beginning God stretched 
forth His hand, and, out of the in- 
finity of space, created He the Earth. 
At a command broad lands arose out 
of the waters; light was wrought out 
of darkness; and a firmament, stud- 
ied with planets, the windows of 
Heaven, encircled the world. At a 
word the sun appeared to reign over 
the day, and the moon, with her sil- 
ver rays, to be Goddess of the night. 

The result was grand. So much 
of imperceptible life, the vine and 
fig tree, the herbs of the field, the 
flower and fruit were beautiful in the 
extreme; but it was not complete 
without a higher life; so God or- 
dained that the fishes of the sea, the 

55 



fowls of the air, the beasts of the 
neld, and every creeping thing should 
be created and multiply to fill the 
Earth and the sea. 

Still the great work was not com- 
plete. The bird could pour forth its 
song of praise; the bud, sun-kissed 
into blossom, could raise its petals 
God- ward in silent glorification, 
but there was nothing throughout all 
this vastness to give forth intelligent 
thanksgiving. So the Ruler and 
Creator of the universe moulded out 
of the dust of the Earth, an image, 
like unto Himself, and, breathing in- 
to its nostrils the breath of life, and 
endowing it with a soul, it stood be- 
fore Him transformed, glorified, a 
man, perfect in physical, spiritual 
and moral attributes. 

God, the infinite, the supreme 
ruler, who has sovereign control of 
all material things, as well as things 
intangible, who heeds the smallest 
worm that crawls in the dust, and 
sets in tune the music of the spheres, 

56 



has a mind broad beyond man's com- 
prehension, and a fullness of the pur- 
ity of love far exceeding man's pow- 
er to conceive. The soul of man has 
always been imprisoned in a corrupt- 
ible body, and, through that body, 
he has continued, from his primitive 
history, to fall from one high estate 
and another; yet, being made in the 
image of God, he has always had 
enough of spirituality and worship 
to cause him to try to arise, like a 
Phoenix out of the ashes of a ruined 
or a misguided life. 

It is self, the ego, the utter forget- 
fulness that we are to live for others, 
that has caused the sins of the world, 
and the overthrow of nations. It 
was self that cast Adam out of the 
garden of Eden and branded Cain 
with the mark of the murderer. It 
was disobedience, through the grat- 
ification of self, that caused the 
downfall and wanderings of the 
house of Israel. Through man's 
own selfishness and desire to place 

57 



his heel on the neck of the weak, and 
to make the moral law a thing of 
torture, society became in such a 
state that the time was ripe for the 
coming of a Messiah, who could 
make man's duty to man plain. And 
the Messiah came! Not with martial 
music and warrior hosts, but in the 
humblest manner babe was ever 
brought into the world. He was the 
merciful. He it was who taught 
brotherly love in such simplicity of 
language that the most ignorant un- 
derstood; and, yet, with such elo- 
quence, that the richest and most 
learned were touched and converted. 
For twenty hundred years the life 
and lessons of this man have swayed 
a Christian universe. The world has 
grown cold many times in these 
twenty centuries; but, the work of 
the man of sorrows, who gave up 
His life in the glorious prime of 
young manhood, has gone on in one 
way and another. Churches have 

58 



grown, and philanthropies, both 
public and private, have sprung up, 
as the need of the times have re- 
quired them; and, if these different 
fountains of good spring from a de- 
sire to benefit mankind in any of the 
respects taught by the divine Man 
of Galilee, they cannot perish. 

Reading clubs, dancing clubs, so- 
ciety associations, political parties 
are born and die from off the face of 
the Earth, but the society or associa- 
tion for the amelioration of the woes 
of mankind live on and flourish for- 
ever as a green bay tree. This is why 
Odd-Fellowship has lived and grown 
until you hear of its mightiness the 
world over. This is the hidden mys- 
tery, the underlying secret of our 
order, that now holds the fealty of 
one million souls, and that continu- 
ally draws into itself an earnest 
throng. 

Odd-Fellowship lives because it is 
like the wise man "which built his 
house upon a rock, and the rain de- 

59 



seended, and the floods came, and the 
wind blew and beat upon that house, 
and it fell not, for it was founded 
upon a rock." Our house is founded 
upon a rock, the rock of charity. Its 
cornerstone is truth, its keystone, 
friendship, and its capstone, love. 
How can the fabric of its walls sink 
under such support? First, let us 
consider the rock of our foundation, 
charity. The Master Himself said : 
"Follow thou after charity," so wrnt 
better could we do than take it for 
our rock of hope? What is charity? 
If I give a crust of bread to a beggar 
that is charity. If I bathe the aching 
brow of a sick brother that is char- 
ity. These things are easy to do. 
Surely it is not hard to be charitable. 
No, truly ! If the crust of bread pre- 
sented, and the gentle office to the 
sick were all of charity, then it 
would be an easy matter to fulfill 
that part of our obligation ; but these 
deeds are only the smallest part of 
charity. Indeed, the gift of material 

60 



things is, as a rule, but charity to 
ourselves. 

Physical suffering, such as hunger 
or bodily pain, appeals to our sym- 
pathies, aggravates the tear glands 
until we weep, and gives us the un- 
comfortable feeling that we should 
not have so much ease while those 
about us are suffering. So we alle- 
viate the ills that upset our tranquil 
lives, and call our deeds charity; 
and so they are, but not charity of 
the highest type. 

Corinthians 1 113 tells us the na- 
ture of charity. "Charity suffereth 
long and is kind; charity envieth 
not; charity vaunteth not itself, is 
not puffed up; doth not behave itself 
unseemly; is not easily provoked, 
thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in in- 
iquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 
beareth all things, believeth all 
things, hopeth all things, endureth 
all things ; charity never faileth." 

Of all the pains in the world, the 
keenest, most bitter, is the mental 

61 



pain that comes from heartache. It is 
the only pain that we hide from the 
world, and the only pain that the 
world rejoices in aggravating. It is 
the pain that drives men to the 
depths of despair and suicide; the 
one that makes infidels of men, and 
that shuts the gates of Heaven 
against them. The charity we give 
to bodily needs builds up the mate- 
rial man; but the charity we give to 
the man in mental distress is the 
kind that warms up the cockles of 
the human heart, and that brings 
souls into a higher plane of living. 
The charity that is engendered in 
the mind of the good, true and pure 
man and woman by Odd-Fellowship 
is that of kind word and thought; 
the charity that is gradually break- 
ing down the partial barbarity, that 
has been bequeathed to us by long 
lines of progenitors ; the charity that 
is slowly but surely civilizing the 
world, in its highest and most fra- 
ternal sense; for true fraternity is 

62 



civilization, the civilization that 
could be seen glimmering through 
the song of the angels: 

"Peace on Earth, good will tjo 
men," when, on that ancient and far 
famed Christmas morn, they an- 
nounced the birth of our suffering 
and beloved elder brother and ex- 
ample. 

Let me assure you that the money 
we, as Odd-Fellows spend on our 
brothers and sisters is not charity, 
and it is not on account of such ex- 
penditures that we are a charitable 
organization. The money spent on 
sick or needy brothers and sisters is 
their just due, dividends belonging 
to them, for money paid into our 
treasuries, and work, its equivalent, 
done in the interests of our order, 
when such members were in the en- 
joyment of health and prosperity. 
The thousands upon thousands of 
dollars that are represented in the 
fair and beautiful homes for the or- 
phan and aged do not characterize 

63 



us as a charitable institution. These 
homes, these palatial orphanages, 
with their vast libraries and cheerful 
and fitting appointments and sur- 
roundings are not marks of charity, 
but monuments of justice, erected in 
honor of those, who, in life and 
health, helped to build up our order, 
and whose helpless orphans are not 
being educated as charity wards of 
Odd-Fellowship, but who are receiv- 
ing their education and training for 
life and good citizenship, as their 
dividends from the money and work 
put into the order by their dead fa- 
thers and mothers, during life. It is 
not the giving of money that makes 
us a charitable body, but the moral 
and spiritual considerations, upon 
which I have touched. 

You ask the question, "Can you 
not, as individuals, do the kind and 
noble deeds that you do when band- 
ed together?" I answer, "Yes, God 
has given us the power so to do, but, 
implanted in our natures, developing 

64 



without culture, like the tares of the 
Bible, are the seeds of original sin; 
the sin of selfishness, the sin of pro- 
crastination, the sin of shirking. 
Examine yourselves impartially, and 
you will find these seeds springing 
up, reaching out, thrusting aside the 
good, taking root where there is 
scarce room to cling, and drinking 
up the rich nourishment of the heart. 
We never grow rapidly in grace 
alone. We grow self-conscious, self- 
loving; we have no incentive to 
broaden our souls, to grow out of 
the narrow limits of self. Alone we 
leave the charities of the world to 
others. If we know of a helpless 
widow we say : "The county will 
take care of her." If we see an or- 
phan we say : "The state has provid- 
ed a home for such ones." If a fam- 
ily is needy we say : "I would take 
over a basket of provisions, but I am 
too tired, and somebody else has 
probably attended to it already." If 
someone has sinned, and a kind word 

65 



or a smile from us can give that ach- 
ing heart the encouragement to make 
a new life, to arise out of the toils of 
surrounding circumstances, if we 
stand alone, we sometimes forget 
that "charity beareth all things and 
never faileth," do we not? 

So, while the good All-Father 
gave us the power to work for good 
alone, He, Himself, deemed it so 
much better for us to work together 
that He gave Eve and Adam, He 
took the companionship of the twelve 
disciples, and He gave to us the 
greatest secret society ever formed 
on Earth, the family, in the most 
sacred place on Earth, the Home. 
Alone, we are like thousands of brick 
that lie scattered here and there over 
the ground. Each one is perfect in 
form, color and strength, yet, each 
one is useless by itself. Indeed, the 
whole mass is useless so long as it 
lies in a shapeless heap; but, let the 
mason lay these bricks one upon an- 
other in some building, and, in the 

66 



course of time, they will form a 
beautiful piece of architecture for 
the good of man. Or, we are like 
a bundle of sticks. Each stick taken 
separately can be easily broken, just 
as our resolutions are if we work 
good alone. Collectively, it is impos- 
sible to break the bundle of sticks, 
just as it is impossible to break the 
fixed purpose of those who are 
bound together by bonds of friend- 
ship, love and truth, for the succor 
of their brotherhood. 

In spite of original sin and nat- 
ural selfishness, we, as human be- 
ings, have noble aspirations and in- 
tense longing for pure action and 
noble deed; and this worship of and 
aspiration for the good has caused 
the growth of churches and secret 
societies, among the latter Odd-Fel- 
lowship. Why should we not link 
the church and Odd-Fellowship? 
Both are doing work for God, 
though, in the church our work is 
sometimes more for self. There we 

67 



are working, primarily, for our own 
soul's salvation, while we are in the 
lodge for humanitarian purposes. 
We are in the latter to work for our 
Master through the good aid we give 
our brother. 

And the King shall say : 

"For I was anhungered and ye 
gave me meat; I was thirsty and ye 
gave me drink ; I was a stranger and 
ye took me in; naked and ye clothed 
me; sick and ye visited me." 

Then shall they answer and say : 

"When saw we Thee anhungered 
and fed Thee, or thirsty and gave 
Thee drink? When saw we Thee a 
stranger and took Thee in, or naked 
and clothed Thee? When saw we 
Thee sick and came unto Thee?" 

And the King shall answer and 
say unto them : 

"Inasmuch as ye have done it un- 
to one of the least of these, my breth- 
ren, ye have done it unto me." 

God has laid the command of 
charity upon us, and has said : "Ye 

68 



are my friends if ye keep my com- 
mandments ;" and this brings us to 
our keystone, friendship. How wise 
to give this precedence. Unless 
friendship is cultivated, we can not 
have true, undefined love in our 
hearts. History and the Bible are 
full of friendships. There was the 
friendship of Damon and Pythias, 
and the never changing and beauti- 
ful friendship of David and Jon- 
athan, that wavered not, even when 
David came to the throne that was 
rightfully Jonathan's. The latter is 
one of the most unselfish types of 
human friendship that has ever ex- 
isted. 

I do not like that unkind and 
hackneyed expression that noi one 
can have many true friends. I like to 
believe, as a good Rebekah, that you 
and I and all of us can so graciously 
open our hearts that we may be 
friends to all, and have the true 
friendship of all good people in re- 
turn. Friendship is not exacting, it 

69 



is charitable, and, as such, is every- 
thing that charity is. Joanna Bailey 
says of friendship that : 
"It is not a plant of hasty growth, 
Though planted in esteem's deep 

fixed soil, 
The gradual culture of kind inter- 
course 
Must bring it to perfection." 

So in the lodge room we meet in 
kind and charitable companionship 
to cultivate the friendship we so 
crave from one another; and, if 
lodges, like families, have misunder- 
standings and troubles, it is not be- 
cause the principles of the order are 
low or insufficient in nobility, but, 
because "to err is human;" but "to 
forgive is divine," and, remember- 
ing our foundation, we forgive, and 
our order lives on in all of its orig- 
inal beauty. The friendship of Odd- 
fellowship should not be of a sum- 
mer type. It should be the friendship 
that endureth, not the friendship 
that asks : "What can I do for 

70 



them?" It should be a friendship in 
which there should be no trace of 
jealousy. There can be no self in 
true friendship. 

To still further strengthen the 
structure of Odd-Fellowship, its 
founders added to the keystone of 
friendship the capstone of love, the 
deep kind sentiment that should ex- 
ist towards those we call brother 
and sister. In adding love they did 
God's bidding, who said : 

"Be kindly aflectioned one toward 
another, in honor preferring one an- 
other." 

And, again, "He that loveth his 
brother abideth in the light, and 
there is none occasion of stumbling 
in him." 

What a grand promise that for 
love to our brother we shall abide in 
the light. There is no more beauti- 
ful instance of brotherly love than 
that of the good Samaritan to the 
wounded traveler between Jerusalem 
and Jerico. The traveler was a Jew, 

71 



and had been left to suffer by the 
Jewish priest, while the Levite, also, 
passed by on the other side. How 
could he expect help of the Samar- 
itan dog, who was spurned by the 
Jews and considered by them too 
low to eat the crumbs that fell from 
their tables. The wounded man, no 
doubt, groaned in spirit as he 
thought, with horror, of the terrible 
revenge that the Samaritan would 
take. But the social outcast saw only 
a brother in distress, so he poured 
oil into the gaping wounds, held the 
poor sufferer in his strong arms, 
helped him upon his beast, and con- 
sidered his work unfinished until he 
had seen the sick man to a place of 
safety, with money to supply his 
wants. 

We, as Odd-Fellows, strive to be 
the good Samaritans to the mem- 
bers of our order, sacrificing money, 
labor and time to alleviate any suf- 
fering that may exist among them; 
never stopping to ask, are they 

72 



Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians; 
are they Republicans or Democrats; 
only realizing that they are our 
brothers and sisters and need the oil 
of friendship and love poured into 
aching wounds. 

The love of our fellow man re- 
minds me of a beautiful poem writ- 
ten by Leigh Hunt, and showing the 
importance of such love. The poem 
is about a devout Rabbi, by name 
Abou Ben Adhem. Abou awoke one 
night from a deep sleep of peace, and 
found an angel of the Lord within 
the room writing in a book. The 
Rabbi asked him what he wrote, and 
the angel answered: 

"The names of those who love the 
Lord." 

"Is my name among them?" Ben 
Adhem asked. But the angel sadly 
shook his head. Ben Adhem then 
said: 

"I pray you write me as one who. 
loves his fellow men." 

The angel wrote again, and this 

73 



time the Rabbi's name led all the 
rest. 

At our last assembly in Topeka, 
Sister Eunice Melville of the Na- 
tional Rebekah, in the course of her 
remarks, said that good food was 
the motive power of a man's whole 
life, and so I presume it is from a 
hygenic point of view. 

"You may surround a man with 
all the luxuries of life; you may 
place his easy chair for him and 
warm his slippers; you may smile 
upon him and love him, and it will 
have no effect on him if his coffee is 
muddy, his bread sour and his beef- 
steak burned." 

This was the import of her words. 
I know it is a common joke, especi- 
ally with lodge, that a man's brains 
are centrally situated in his body, 
but, for the sake of a position, I'm 
going to stand up for the men. I like 
'em, and give them credit for higher 
ideals, and loftier yearnings than 
army beans and hardtack, or any- 

74 



thing else that is good to eat. The 
man of humane feelings and a desire 
for a higher civilization, the man of 
soul, as well as the woman, must 
have something to make his life in 
perfect atune with the universe, be- 
sides well cooked meat and potatoes ; 
and that something is love. Feed a 
man on the wealth of the vegetable 
kingdom, tempt his appetite with 
fish from the seas or the fresh waters 
of the world, place before him meats 
that have been raised on the most 
succulent grasses and grains, give 
him the luscious fruits of the tropics, 
but let him be without the respectful 
love of man or woman, and that man 
will be the most abject wretch on the 
face of the Earth. He will be worse 
than a man without a country. He 
will be ready to lay down his life. 
Lack of good food will give a man 
the heart burn, but lack of love will 
give him> the heartache, that touches 
the real brain, and burns up life and 
manhood. 

75 



Let a man be unloved and unlov- 
ing, and there is neither a bird nor a 
blade of green grass, nor is there 
sunshine in the Heavens, even 
though it be a rare and perfect day 
in June. Or, if it is winter, he pulls 
his heavy overcoat around him, but 
he is cold, bitter cold. But let human 
love permeate a man's life, and this 
old world will be a marvel of glory 
and loveliness, be it ever so foggy 
and damp. The blasts of winter 
trouble not such men, for the sub- 
terranean fire of love is aglow in 
their hearts, warming up the life 
stream, and sending it bubbling and 
glowing through the veins. This 
quality of love is the central one of 
the three links of Odd-Fellowship. 
With bands that are as strong as 
iron, yet as fair and light as flowers, 
it binds together its sister links of 
friendship and truth. 

It seems as though friendship and 
love, resting upon charity ought tu 

76 



be sufficient to immortalize any so- 
ciety, but can even these exist with- 
out truth ? No ! The mighty fabric 
of civilization itself would be torn 
down did not truth underlie it. 
"Truth crushed to Earth shall rise 

again, 
The eternal years of God are hers." 

So to more firmly bind together 
the walls of Odd-Fellowship, and 
cause it to stand through the eternal 
years, its founders added truth. Did 
not the Holy Word bid them to "buy 
the truth and sell it not?" and say 
that "He that speaketh truth show- 
eth forth righteousness?" From 
Christ's own mouth came the words : 
"The truth shall set ye free." 

Besides these was the divine 
teaching that "love rejoieeth in the 
truth, and, for this alone, it seemed 
the most fitting virtue to complete 
the foundation of the order. I have 
spoken at some length of the virtues 
that have made Odd-Fellowship 
withstand the storms of seventy- 

77 



eight years. In brief, I say, it is be- 
cause, like the man of the Bible, we 
have founded our house upon a rock, 
because we have taken for our un- 
derlying virtues, friendship, love, 
truth, charity, and because God is 
with us. 

For three decades and a half Odd- 
Fellowship existed without a woman 
in it. Imagine those blessed old an- 
cestors of ours struggling blindly 
through so many years without us. 
Truly it was not themselves, but the 
strength of their building stone that 
upheld them. At the end of all these 
years they began to realize that: 
"There's not a place in Earth or 

Heaven, 
There's not a task to mankind given, 
There's not a blessing or a woe, 
There's not a whisper yes or no, 
There's not a life, a death, a birth, 
There's not a secret lodge on Earth, 
That has a penny's weight of worth 
Without a woman in it." 
The idea of a degree to which 

78 



women could be admitted was 
wrought out forty- four years ago in 
the mind of the late Schuyler Col- 
fax. We owe the embryo of our or- 
der to the man who became Vice- 
President of these United States at 
so early an age as to create astonish- 
ment among his colleagues. We 
should feel proud to think that a man 
of so great mental caliber should 
give a thought to the interests of 
women in Odd-Fellowship. Why 
did this idea come to him ? 

I have heard several reasons as- 
signed. I have heard that he was a 
young man at the time, living with 
his mother, and that the Rebekah de- 
gree was but the realization of one 
of her fondest dreams, that she had 
solicited her son to make it real for 
her. I have heard that it was his 
wife's influence that shone through 
his work, and that one leaf from his 
laurel wreath should be plucked to 
adorn her brow. I have heard that it 
was first suggested as a protection 



to Odd-Fellows' wives, by an acci- 
dent occurring to a lady, who lost 
her poeketbook with her money, in a 
large city, midway between her 
home and the place of her destina- 
tion. Applying to a church of her 
denomination for immediate relief, 
she was met with cold and dis- 
courteous refusal, and words, the 
import of which was that they dealt 
with such fraudulent cases every 
day. In her desperation she applied 
to an Odd-Fellow, who took her to 
his home and wife for entertain- 
ment, while he telegraphed to her 
home to find out about her. A sat- 
isfactory answer returning, she was 
loaned the necessary money, and 
sent on her way rejoicing. 

Out of this circumstance, some 
say, grew the Rebekah degree, which 
was simply the nucleus of our pres- 
ent glorious work. I give but little 
credit to any of these stories, but be- 
lieve implicity that the degree of Re- 
bekah was born because Odd-Fel- 

80 



lowship was ready for it; and 
' Schuyler Colfax, its great and ben- 
evolent father, feeling the pulse of 
Odd-Fellowship, knew that it was in 
a moral condition to sustain and 
nourish this lovely child. 

Odd- Fellowship had grown out of 
its tap-room days. It no longer met 
in saloons. Slowly, but surely, it had 
come up out of the darkness of night 
into the broad light of day, and blaz- 
oned on that light, in rainbow col- 
ors, Colfax read : 

"Your order needs the presence 
and influence of women." 

For thirty-five years, in weather 
clement and inclement, the members 
of the mystic order had been aiding 
in the last sad rites of deceased 
Odd-Fellowship. Night after night 
they had sat up to minister to sick 
brothers until the stars paled, and 
rose and golden hues shot up the 
Eastern sky. Yet, with all this, 
there was an element lacking, and 
that element was womankind; the 

81 



mothers of the race. Man's heart 
might be as kind and gentle as wom- 
an's, yet, through no fault of his, her • 
touch was ofttimes more soothing, 
her words more comforting than his. 
What could the gentlest of men do 
for an Odd-Fellow's sick wife or 
child compared to what a woman 
could do? I believe it was this need 
of the woman nature in the order 
that actuated Colfax to urge the in- 
stitution of the degree that shall be a 
lasting monument to his name and 
fame; that has proven itself the 
strongest auxiliary to the subordi- 
nate lodge; and that always has and 
always will walk hand in hand with 
it. 

Has woman proved a blessing to 
Odd-Fellowship? I answer yes, de- . 
cidedly yes ! She has been the in- 
spiration of good in that as in all 
else. It was meant for her to be in 
the order. It is meant that she 
should be in anything that needs the 
influence of her womanly character. 

82 



The divine book upon and from 
which the order was founded says: 
"Man was not meant to be alone.'' 
This was proven beyond a doubt 
when the Earth was young. Review 
your Genesis and you will find that, 
after creating a male being, perfect 
in all attributes, the eternal ruler felt 
that it was not complete without 
woman. Up to this point He 
had advanced in the formation of the 
world and all there was therein from 
chaos to a complete and perfect 
whole. Everything that he had com- 
manded to be was higher and better. 
Then, when He had said : "It is not 
good for man to be alone," it is not 
reasonable to suppose that, after ad- 
vancing, degree by degree, to grand- 
er results, he would move in a retro- 
grade direction by bringing into be- 
ing something less noble than His 
last noble creation, man. We have 
every reason to believe that, when, 
instead of making woman of the 
dust, or out of some part of the body 

83 



of one of the lower animals, God 
made her out of the side of man, she 
was, at least, his equal ; and, that, as 
He made her last of all created 
things, and could endow her with 
what was lacking in the others, it is 
reasonable to suppose that she was a 
nobler and more perfect creature. 
Robbie Burns says : 
"God tried his 'prentice hand on 

man, 
And, then, he made the woman, oh." 
The merry Scotchman evidently 
thought that an apprenticeship was 
served on man, but the master-hand 
being employed in the making of 
woman, she was, consequently, a 
masterpiece. Be that as it may, we 
all know that, in the world of men 
and women, while the men, as a rule, 
have the greatest amount of physical 
strength, women are morally and 
spiritually stronger. Leaving out the 
evil men and the evil women and 
considering all other classes, you will 
find, among the women more regard 

84 



and reverence for holy things, more 
tenderness in sickness, more emotion 
and sympathy than among men. At 
the same time yon will find them 
quite as courageous when put to the 
test, quite as quick witted, quite as 
strategic and quite as business-like 
as men. Her faculties are quickened 
by love, the broad minded love of 
Odd-Fellowship. 

"A woman talks more than a 
man," you say. Yes, I have heard 
so, but you ask her where she heard 
what she talks about, and she fre- 
quently says : 

"Oh, John told me!" John is her 
husband. 

Admitting, hypothetically, that 
women do talk more than men, and 
I warrant you that the men would 
never know this if they didn't listen 
with both ears. 

With regard to woman's courage, 
it was as courageous for the noble 
Mexic women to hover over the 
dead and wounded on the battle field 

85 



of Beuna Vista, among the stray 
minie balls, as it was for the soldiers 
to fight on that field. Theirs was a 
courage born of the love and charity 
of pity. Can it be doubted that Odd- 
Fellowship needs women? Think of 
the courage of brave Molly Pitcher, 
who, when her husband, the gunner, 
was killed, sprung forward and man- 
ned the gun just as well as he did. 
Think of the noble Joan of Arc, the 
young French girl, who, when the 
French army was in the lowest 
depths of despair, with hardly an of- 
ficer with courage to take command, 
placed herself at the head of the 
French forces, and led them on to 
victory. The battle of Orleans, at 
which she gained the sobriquet of 
Maid of Orleans, closed a bloody 
war that had lasted one hundred 
years. She had been inspired by 
God, so she believed, to do this deed, 
and her reverential love redeemed 
her country and her people. Think 
of a good woman when and where 



you will, and you will find her in the 
home, in the church, in business, 
courageous, level-headed, loving 
magnanimous. Is it any wonder she 
weilds the power she does in the de- 
gree of Rebekah ? If she would think 
conscientiously of her God-given en- 
dowments, would she not be incited 
to do more and better work than she 
ever did before, in all walks of life, 
especially in the home; and, since 
the lodge is a home, a big family, of 
which she is a member, could she not 
do more for it than she has ever done 
before ? 

The concession has long since been 
made that the subordinate lodges 
that have Rebekah auxiliaries ac- 
complish more real good than those 
do that have no such branch. My ex- 
tensive lodge visitation, as President 
of the Assembly, shows me that, in 
places where the subordinates and 
Rebekahs co-operate with each other 
there is the best work and the purest 
Odd-Fellowship. The great history 

87 



of Rebekahism is yet to come. 
Through its agency homes for the 
orphan and indigent aged ones of 
our order will be founded, libraries 
will be formed, our children will be 
drawn closer to the order, and, 
through it, be given a true realiza- 
tion of the virtues of friendship, love 
and truth. I believe all of these 
things will be perfected years before 
they could be, did the men stand 
alone in the order. 

The Rebekah, that is now a separ- 
ate and, largely, self-governing 
lodge, was forty-four years ago, but 
a degree of the subordinate lodge, to 
which the dear ladies could be ad- 
mitted upon promise to touch not 
and handle not. They were politely 
given seats against the wall and com- 
manded to hold their peace, beauti- 
ful mute wall-flowers, as it were. I 
have often wondered why the men 
were so particular for the sisters to 
keep such eternal silence and quiet, 
and I have decided that it was 



through fear that the dear girls 
would steal that proverbial lodge 
goat, to put in a goat cart for the 
lodge babies. I have been a Re- 
bekah but ten years, but my recollec- 
tions of the order date from my early 
childhood, from the fact that my fa- 
ther and mother both belonged to it. 
My father belonged to the encamp- 
ment and wore their then stunning 
uniform, the plumed hat, purple 
gauntlets, and sword belt, with their 
gold trimmings and dashing sword. 
My father was also a Mason, and 
when I was the least mite of a little 
woman, about big enough to make 
mud pies and get spanked for it, I 
heard my father say to my mother : 

"I belong to the Masons and the 
Odd-Fellows, and they are both fine 
orders, but, if I had to give up one, 
it would be the Masons." 

This remark troubled me im- 
mensely. I thought it must be simply 
divine to be a Mason, one could pad- 
dle in mortar to one's heart's con- 

89 



tent. If anything it would be pre- 
ferable to mud pies. On the other 
hand, I could not appreciate any- 
one's pride at being an Odd-Fellow. 
My mother sometimes called me an 
odd girl, but it was in a tone that 
made me feel as though someone had 
poured cold water down my back. 
My father certainly was an Odd- 
Fellow for liking to be one. I fin- 
ally came to the conclusion that his 
tender affection for the order was 
because he had such a beautiful uni- 
form to wear. I have learned differ- 
ently since I have quit making mud 
pies, and have taken to making them 
of other materials. 

I was about eight years old when 
I made my first vow to be a Re- 
bekah. It was one 25th day of April. 
My father and mother had started 
down the street on their way to the 
Portland, Maine, train. They were 
going to that city to be present at a 
grand celebration of the anniversary 
of Odd-Fellowship. Father had on 

90 



his encampment uniform, and moth- 
er had, about her neck, a Jacob's lad- 
der, made of pink and green ribbons. 
As I swung on the front gate, and 
watched my folks out of sight, I ex- 
claimed to my little sister, who stood 
near by : 

"I am going to be a Rebekah and 
wear a pink and green ribbon chain, 
when I am as big as mother ; and I'm 
going to marry an Odd-Fellow, too, 
so he can wear a uniform like fa- 
ther's." 

I actually did marry an Odd-Fel- 
low, not, I must confess because he 
belonged to the order, but because I 
fell in love with — well, you know 
how it is yourselves. You have all 
been there. 

Following in the footsteps of my 
father and mother, I enlisted under 
the banner of truth, espoused the 
cause of charity, and pledged myself 
to the service of friendship and love. 

"I am not a brother," some of the 



91 



subordinates say to me when I meet 
them in my travels. 

"Why not?" I ask. 

"Oh, because I do not belong to 
the Rebekahs!" 

"But that makes no difference," I 
answer. When I embarked in the 
craft of Odd-Fellowship, even 
though I am confined to a very small 
apartment, my heart went out to 
every worthy member who is sailing 
under the same colors. If I were in 
trouble or distress I would come to 
you for help without hesitation. I 
know you would give it to me, so 
how can I help but feel that you are 
my brother. I feel the close relation- 
ship between the subordinate and 
Rebekah branches of Odd-Fellow- 
ship; and I hope the time will come 
when every good Odd-Fellow will 
think it is for his best interests to 
take our beautiful degree of Re- 
bekah, and extend it to his wife, 
daughter, mother, sister and women 
friends. I want him to see what is, 

92 



beyond a doubt, true, that subordin- 
atism and Rebekahism are comple- 
ments of each other, and that neither 
is perfect without the other. 

What is Odd-Fellowship? It is 
practical Christianity, and that is 
why both men and women are needed 
to make its work well rounded, per- 
fect, complete. 

"Your principles are beautiful," 
outsiders frequently say, "but do you 
always practice them?" 

Alas, no ! Not always ! But that 
is because we are frail; we are but 
weak humanity and we ofttimes fail, 
and we have a long earnest work be- 
fore us if we expect to attain the ex- 
cellence of our pristine purpose. 
But ours has been such a practical 
order that a printed account of all 
the good it has done would fill a 
library as large as the Bodliean. I 
have listened to dozens of tales of 
good Samaritan deeds among Odd- 
Fellows, but the two that impressed 
me the most were the following : 

93 



In the lodge room at Nortonville 
a brother, whose childhood home had 
been on the New Jersey sea coast, 
said that he was but nine years old 
when Odd-Fellowship first became a 
part of his life. He had driven to 
mill with a load of wheat, or some 
kind of grain, and was sitting in his 
wagon chatting with the miller, when 
a tramp, and a rather rough looking 
one at that, came up. The boy saw 
no sign of recognition pass between 
the miller and the tramp, but there 
must have been one, for the former 
ran down the mill steps, shook hands 
with the latter, called him brother, 
and began a conversation, in which 
it appeared that the tramp was a 
shipwrecked sailor, trying to get 
home, a place some distance away. 
The miller took some money from 
his pocketbook and loaned it to the 
tramp, while the boy laughed in his 
sleeve at the miller's gullibility in 
ever expecting to see his money 
again. Sometime after that, being 

94 



at the mill, he asked if the tramp had 
ever returned the money. 

"That man was my brother, and 
the money was returned," said the 
miller with dignity. 

"I thought, then/' said the gentle- 
man at Nortonville, "that an order 
that could influence a man to recog- 
nize and trust a brother behind the 
rags and dishevelled appearance of a 
tramp, was something that could 
make a man a better and a nobler be- 
ing. I decided that I would join it 
as soon as I was old enough, and I 
did." 

While visiting the Rebekah lodge 
at Barnes, Kansas, on one occasion, 
an aged brother arose and said that, 
if any man owed his health and, 
probably, his life to Odd-Fellowship, 
that he was the man. He was a lieu- 
tenant in the Northern army at the 
time he was benefited, was stationed 
in Tennessee, and had been detailed 
to go out with two private soldiers 
to gather blackberries. His detach- 

95 



merit of the army was in camp, 
awaiting orders, and the men, when- 
ever they could get an officer to go 
with them, were wiping out old 
scores against their appetites, by de- 
vouring the luscious Southern black- 
berries. The lieutenant and his men 
were in the patch, and he had heed- 
lessly wandered away from them. 
He heard a sound of voices near him 
and spoke, but was not answered. 
Upon looking up, he found himself 
only a few feet from three men in 
citizen's clothes, but his own men 
were nowhere in sight. Hoping 
against hope that these men were 
unconnected with the Southern army 
and realizing that he had better put 
on a brave face, he remarked that he 
had been out long enough, and had 
better get back to his own part of 
the country. 

"Don't be in a hurry," said one 
of the men, "you are my prisoner." 

At this instant his eyes caught 
sight of a pin that the prisoner wore 

96 



on his vest. Turning to his men he 
called out : 

"Walk on, boys, I want to talk to 
this man. I'll be with you presently. 
I can manage the prisoner. He's 
alone." 

Turning again to our Northern ■ 
lieutenant, he said in a low tone : 

"You are an Odd-Fellow." 

"Yes," was the answer, "and you 
are, too. Perhaps, under the cir- 
cumstances, you'll be a little consid- 
erate." 

"Considerate," said the Southern- 
er, who was, also, a lieutenant, but in 
the Confederate army. "I can't cap- 
ture you. We have both vowed the 
same vows on the altar of Odd-Fel- 
lowship, and I can't take you. When 
I say go, you cut and run. The boys 
will soon be out of sight, and you 
can escape easily. I'll have to shoot 
after you, so that the boys will think 
that I tried to do for you." 

The signal was given, the North- 
erner shot through the bushes with 

97 



the speed of Mercury, and soon came 
to his men, who had heard the mus- 
ket shot and had come to meet him. 

"Odd-Fellowship has never owed 
me anything since then," said the 
old gentleman, "but I have been try- 
ing, ever since that day to pay, in 
part, the debt I owe to it." 

This debt proves that the broth- 
erly love taught by Christ, that the 
Christ spirit in Odd-Fellowship is 
stronger in men's breasts than the 
demoniac spirit that incenses the 
hearts of men who are engaged in 
unholy warfare. There is something 
peaceful about Odd-Fellowship that 
opposes strife and bloodshed. Yet, 
those who make up Odd-Fellowship 
are human, with all of human frail- 
ties. They make failures and com- 
mit errors, and the order is blamed. 

Nothing can be more beneficial to 
the growth and prosperity of the or- 
der than to explain its principles and 
workings to the public; but it is 
quite, and sometimes more, essential 

98 



to tell Odd-Fellows themselves, those 
who are initiated into the degrees, 
the mistakes that are made by Odd- 
fellows, and show them how to rec- 
tify these, and hold the order up to 
its royal standard. If Odd-Fellow- 
ship ever falls below par in any com- 
munity, it is because the members, 
into whose hands its beauties and 
grandeurs have been entrusted, have 
exchanged its sterling gold for green 
goods, and the outside, disinterested 
world thinks it is all counterfeit. 

My Odd-Fellow brothers and sis- 
ters, you want your light to shine be- 
fore men. Then you must keep it 
trimmed and clean. Do not smoke 
and dim your works with the un- 
trimmed wicks of non-interest, nor 
the rancid oil of strife, hatred or any 
evil, the direct opposite of our vows, 
obligations and teachings. We teach 
charity, but, in spite of this, lodges 
are sometimes divided against each 
other. Did you ever know such a 
lodge, one in which two or more fac- 

99 



LofC. 



tions existed? In case of death every 
member followed the dead brother 
or sister to the grave, dropped the 
bit of evergreen into the yawning 
chasm and went home with sad 
hearts, yet, at the next regular meet- 
ing attended lodge hand in glove 
with one faction or the other. Such 
things may never occur in your 
lodge, but, as you are human beings, 
the trial may sooner or later come to 
you, and it will be the thing that will 
test your charity. Stand up, then, 
and say : 

"Let the white robed angel of 
peace hover over us. Come, broth- 
ers and sisters, let us have har- 
mony." 

Go to the sister or brother who 
has injured you and speak with kind- 
ness and generosity. Would it be 
hard to do? Yes, but it would be 
charity. Look back to the night you 
first took the new and solemn obli- 
gations upon yourself. Remember 
how you went home with the 

100 



thought that it was more holy and 
impressive than you had ever pic- 
tured it to be. Think of the good 
deeds you have done, and the sad 
offices you may yet be called upon to 
perform. Think of the time when 
death, that makes alike both king 
and pauper, that levels imperial 
Caesar with no more respect than it 
does the most unassuming man, and 
let these thoughts stand, as a peace- 
maker, between your longing for re- 
venge and your enemy brother and 
sister. Never trail the banners of 
your order in the dust to gratify 
your hatred or indignation. Would 
it be hard to arise to the level of your 
teachings in such a case? Yes, yes! 
nothing could be harder, but you 
will be protecting the order, and you 
will be, besides, doing something far 
better. You will be expanding your 
soul and building character. 

You want to let your light shine 
before men. Then let me warn you 
off the Scylla and Charybdis of your 

101 



order. One of our greatest enemies, 
that may find its way into any place, 
is apathy. Did you ever think what 
an unwholesome characteristic apa- 
thy is? I have an unearthly feeling 
of gooseflesh whenever I hear a per- 
son spoken of as cold or apathetic, or 
when I shake hands with a person 
who has an apathetic hand. Nothing 
kills a lodge quicker than lost inter- 
est. It is SO' easy to decide that it is 
too hot or too cold to go to lodge; 
so easy to wait for somebody else to 
put a motion that is needed. Under 
unfinished business, you remember 
that little matter that Brother B — 
brought up for discussion was left 
over ; but it is as much your left hand 
neighbor's business to bring it up as 
yours, so you wait and wait for him 
to bring it up, he waits for you, of 
course, and the Noble Grand hastens 
on. You feel sure it is late, so you 
move an adjournment. When you 
reach home your wife remarks that 
it is only 9 o'clock. In a lackadaisical 

102 



manner you answer that lodge was 
so dull, you thought it must be late. 
Your lodge members soon become 
apathetic, and your lodge suffers a 
glacial period. In a short time news 
comes from Fog Hollow that their 
lodge has died a natural death. No 
one says a thing about it, but all look 
wise, for everybody knows that that 
lodge died of concussion of the 
brain. 

Go to the lodge room with some- 
thing to say, and say it. If someone 
else has something to say and asks 
the opinion of others make an opin- 
ion and express it. When lodge 
night comes, don't say : 

"I am too tired to go to lodge to- 
night. There will be enough there 
without me." 

If everyone should do this, your 
lodge would have hard work to cast 
a shadow. No one who has taken 
up the work of Odd-Fellowship has 
any right to be listless, lazy, apa- 
thetic, for apathy is laziness. We 

103 



should each feel that there is some 
particular work for each one of us, 
that no one can do quite as well as 
we can. If we happen to be in a 
healthy and rich community, where 
sickness is unheard of, and poor or- 
phans are rare, thus making business 
scarce, we should have more time to 
improve ourselves. Our lodges are, 
in many" cases, and should be in all 
cases, educational. Many lodges have 
and all should have libraries. Under 
good of the order have literary pro- 
grams and lessons. Study the Amer- 
ican authors, poets, novelists and 
philosophers. Study United States 
history, study anything you please, 
but study to kill apathy. Your lodge 
room should be your school room, 
where you systematically learn the 
lessons that you are to take out and 
make a part of your every-day life. 
Every Odd-Fellow should have a 
realizing sense of the fact that his 
lodge is a school, his hall a school 
room, and his brothers and sisters 

104 



an earnest and united band of schol- 
ars, who are eagerly studying and 
practising the precepts of their hu- 
manitarian school. 

Another evil that, sometimes, on 
account of our human fallability, 
threatens Odd- Fellowship, is jeal- 
ousy, the green-eyed monster that 
has eaten at the vitals of men since 
the recorded population of the world 
was four persons. There is no pre- 
cinct too precious to debar its en- 
trance. It lurks in the corners of the 
church; it casts a gloom and fitful 
fever over the home; it envelops the 
altar of the lodge room in an im- 
penetrable gray mist, hiding the di- 
vine text book from the eye of the 
soul. In the lodge room it some- 
times crops out this way : 

"Our lodge does not prosper very 
well, so-and-so tries to run it." 

I trust this is not said in the ma- 
jority of lodges, but I make men- 
tion of it to warn us off of such 
shoals and away from such treach- 

105 



erous quicksands. So long as we 
think, earnestly, of the golden rule, 
"Whatsoever ye would that men 
should do to you, do ye even so unto 
them," there can be no jealousy. 

Let us consider, more closely, that 
remark, so-and-so is trying to run 
the lodge. I don't believe that is 
quite true. Do you? Some people 
have a natural aptitude for keeping 
things in working order. They see, 
at a glance, what could be done here 
and what should be done there. Be- 
ing ambitious, not for themselves, 
but for their order, they endeavor to 
make people see as they do, and are 
dubbed "bosses." We should guard 
against this feeling, for it is, unde- 
niably, jealousy, and no more regret- 
able thing can enter a lodge than 
jealousy. Give us Ruths, Naomis, 
Deborahs and Miriams, and the pa- 
triarchs of old, but no personification 
of jealousy. Has a lodge a leader, 
a so-called leader, an almost impos- 
sible thing where all should be lead- 

106 



ers, it should be proud of whoever it 
is. It would make so much better 
feeling and be so much broader- 
minded for members to say : 

" Brother knows just how to 

go ahead to make our lodge a suc- 
cess; or, Sister has some excel- 
lent ideas that we should adopt," 
than to say : 

"Brother and Sister So-and-so are 
trying to run the lodge and I shall 
leave it." 

I do not mean that a leader should 
always be a high official, but, if ca- 
pable of making excellent sugges- 
tions, or carrying out the plans of 
others, lodges should be willing to 
have this done, and glad that they 
have someone to do it. Lodges need 
these so-called leaders as much as 
armies need generals. Those who 
are not leaders should be glad that 
they belong to the rank and file. No 
general ever gained a victory except 
through his soldiers. No officer ever 
held a pass by himself, that has to be 

107 



done by willing and efficient private 
soldiers. I have spoken of so-called 
leaders because ours is an organiza- 
tion where all are equal. We meet, 
the rich and the poor, the young and 
the old, the lettered and the unlet- 
tered in one common brotherhood. 
Ours is an order where character 
alone counts, or should count. If a 
lodge has a member so eloquent that 
he can sway the world by his words, 
and another member who can barely 
read and write, but who keeps the 
room neat and in order, the lamps 
bright and shining, that latter is do- 
ing as great a work as the former. 
Both are doing according to his 
strength. God requires no more, nor 
should we. 

One other great evil with which 
Odd-Fellows have to contend is the 
selfishness that keeps them from tell- 
ing friends of their beloved order 
and the strength it has been to them 
in their lives. We should so live up 
to our principles that all good men 

108 



and good women shall desire to join 
our ranks. We should also solicit 
the support of good people. To 
work for our order is to work for 
mankind. An old idea still prevails 
in certain localities that members 
should not be solicited, but this 
seems unreasonable. The Ijord 
taught us that our charities should 
be done in secret, but He also taught 
that our light should not be hid un- 
der a bushel, but should be set, like 
a fair city, on a hill, to be seen of all 
men. He taught that our lives should 
be so upright and our actions so 
pure that people would desire to fol- 
low in our footsteps, but He never 
said to the twelve disciples: 

"Come, we will form a secret so- 
ciety of ourselves and, by and by, 
people will see that we obey the gold- 
en rule, and they will join us and do 
as we do." 

He knew that people do not, as a 
rule, notice the purest things of life 
unless their attention is called to 

109 



(hem, so He sent His disciples out 
into the highways and byways to 
tell the people that they must do to 
others as they would be done by, that 
they must judge not lest they be 
judged, that they must love their 
neighbors as themselves; then, and 
then only, did people take great heed 
of Christ's teaching and example. 

So with your lodge. You cannot 
expect the world to realize what a 
moral and spiritual factor it is unless 
you tell them. Membership should 
be solicited, but with the greatest of 
caution. Go to those whom you 
know would elevate Odd-Fellowship 
and tell them you need their help and 
influence. In this way you can build 
up your order, not only in point of 
numbers, but in quality. 

Occasionally you will find some- 
one who does not believe in secret 
societies. They will tell you that 
they consider your order a powerful 
factor in the world of philanthropy 
and justice, its only drawback being 

• 110 



its secret character. 

You can tell them that, if they ob- 
ject to secret societies, they must 
object, equally, to lovers and burg- 
lar-proof safes. Ask them if it has 
ever occurred to them that the lorn 
lover and the lady of his affections 
are a secret society on a small scale, 
and that, when the lorn one gets his 
courage up sufficiently, to ask the 
lady to share his name and fame and 
fortune, and she says she can't 
thanks, but she will be a sister to 
him, he wishes, oh, how sincerely, 
that she will never give away that 
secret of the order. 

You may tell them that the owner 
of the burglar-proof safe and the 
combination or time lock are another 
mutual secret society. The owner 
puts his valuables in the safe and 
fastens them in with a secret known 
only to himself and the time lock. It 
is a very small secret, yet it pro- 
tects against thieves, who might 
break in and steal. 

Ill 



Then, to be serious, say to them : 
"If you are opposed to secret so- 
cieties, you must be opposed to that 
Heaven instituted secret society, the 
home. Would you ? Do you tell the 
world of your little troubles, your 
vexations, your heartaches, your 
joys, your family ambitions and 
plans? Would you have the world 
dwell with you, eating at the table 
with you, and sitting always at your 
hearthstones with you, between you 
and your wife and children? Would 
you open your doors to all, the mur- 
derer, the slanderer, the robber, the 
pleasure seeker, who steals from 
man those who are nearest and dear- 
est to him, and let them know the 
ways of your household? No? Then 
your prejudice has been a myth all 
of the time, for you are a firm be- 
liever in secret societies. 

Odd-Fellowship is no more a se- 
cret society than the home, but, be- 
ing larger than the home, and ex- 
tending almost all over the whole 

112 



universe, it must have some secret 
signs and tokens by which its mem- 
bers may recognize strangers, and 
to prevent fraud being practised on 
them by unprincipled people, who do 
not belong to the order. I do not 
like to think of our beautiful Odd- 
Fellowship as a secret society. I 
like to think of it as a protective so- 
ciety with a few necessary and sim- 
ple secrets in it. If we had the 
wealth of the Indies at our disposal, 
or, if all men were pure and good, 
we could dispense with these few 
secret signs and words ; but, alas, all 
men are not good and would abuse 
our charities. Then, too, our means, 
while sufficient to relieve the wants 
of our members, to the extent of 
hundreds of thousands of dollars, 
are too limited to relieve the wants 
of all, so we must confine ourselves, 
principally, to those who take up the 
noble work with us, and, for this 
reason, we need some secret recogni- 
tion signs. For this we are spoken 

113 



of by all and stigmatized by some as 
a secret society. 

There are but few things occur- 
ring in Odd-Fellowship but what 
could be told to everybody. We do 
not keep the proceedings of our 
meetings to ourselves because we are 
a secret society, but because "a still 
tongue showeth a wise head/' and 
because we would stand very low in 
the eyes of the public if we should 
go about telling our business. We 
must have dignity for our own af- 
fairs if we would have the public re- 
spect. 

I have made mention of Schuyler 
Colfax, whose memory we rever- 
ence, but there is a man now living, 
but who is rapidly nearing the shore 
of the water of life, whose name 
should live through the eternal ages, 
side by side with that of Colfax. I 
refer to our aged and beloved Past 
Grand Sir, Brother Nicholson, of 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. No one 
who has lived in the order has done 

114 



more for it, through a long and uo- 
right life, than has Brother Nichol- 
son. With a heart yearning to re- 
lieve all suffering, and striving to 
lead men and women to grander pur- 
pose and greater achievement; with 
a strong sense of the injustice that 
has been done to women since their 
early history, and an utter abhor- 
rence of scandal and lowness in any 
form, his face shines with the inno- 
cence, refinement and high breeding 
that can come only through pure liv- 
ing. To know him is to be a better 
man or a better woman. While Col- 
fax gave a beautiful branch of our 
order to Odd-Fellows' wives, to 
Brother Nicholson is due the honor 
and praise of making that branch, in 
part, as far reaching and influential 
as the other branches. Nor must we 
forget the Sovereign Grand Lodge 
representatives, who, at Chattanoo- 
ga, Tennessee, in September of '94, 
supported the resolution, and, by 
their votes, made it a law. May it 

115 



not be possible that the presiding 
genius of Mount Lookout, around 
whose lofty head floats so broad an 
expanse of pure ether, upon whose 
sides men fought for life and liberty, 
had something to do with making 
this law of broadness and liberty; 
this law that makes all unmarried 
women over eighteen years of age, 
who believe in God and are of good 
moral character, eligible to Rebekah 
membership, even when they have 
no male Odd-Fellow relatives. 

I think that no law of the order 
has been so widely discussed in lodge 
circles and through the press. Argu- 
ments there are for it, and they are 
many and strong. Little by little 
the opposition side has been won 
over, yet there still remains a class 
who are dissatisfied, very prominent 
in which is the subordinate who 
wouldn't join the Rebekah lodge if 
his initiation fee were paid for him, 
and a carriage placed at his disposal 
to take him to the hall. This type 

116 



reminds me of the man who holds 
down the sidewalk, day by day, and 
then growls because his farm pro- 
duces nothing. 

"The Rebekah degree should be 
exclusively for Odd- Fellows and 
their families/' can be heard, even 
now. Granted, if the Rebekah de- 
gree were a card party, or a pool as- 
sociation, or a society affair, for the 
purpose of getting all of the pleas- 
ure possible out of life; but, thank 
God, the Rebekah degree is an or- 
ganization for the purpose of hu- 
manizing, civilizing and bettering 
mankind, and, therefore, is too glor- 
ious a thing to be kept for those who 
will have none of it. There are a 
million Odd-Fellows, with their 
wives and daughters who would not 
come into* the Rebekah lodge if they 
were asked on bended knees. These 
women will have none of your fav- 
ors, nor will they help to dispense 
them. Their husbands and fathers 
will not join because the wives and 

117 



daughters do not. On the other hand 
there are a million unmarried wom- 
en, in the budding beauty of young 
girlhood, in the first glad flush of 
young womanhood, in early middle 
age, late middle age and old age, 
who would come to you for the ask- 
ing, because they love the kind of 
work you do. In the face of this 
truth why should our degree be kept 
for Odd- Fellows and their wives? 
Simply for tradition's sake. It was 
the clinging to tradition that caused 
the religious wars, and the burning 
of supposed witches at Salem. The 
greatest foe to advancement and civ- 
ilization is tradition. I can under- 
stand why a man might oppose the 
law, but I cannot see what is the 
matter with a woman's gentle and 
motherly heart to do so. 

Justice is represented by a beauti- 
ful female figure with great sightless 
eyes. The blind eyes are allegorical 
of the perfect honesty with which an 
unbiased person, a person who can- 

118 



not see one side nor the other of a 
case, would mete out justice. This 
is the popular tale, but how do we 
know but what the unbearable pain in 
the beautiful eyes, caused by "man's 
inhumanity to man," and the hand 
of woman raised against her sister 
woman are what put out their light 
'o day forever. 

I could give you hundreds of cases 
where lodges that would otherwise 
have gone down, have been built by 
this law. One case, however, stands 
out very clearly in my mind. Mis- 
souri has, for its orphans' home, one 
of the most stately and elegant ed- 
ifices in the country, exquisitely fin- 
ished inside and furnished through- 
out. It has been dedicated less than 
a year and already contains nineteen 
orphans. Sister Stone Robinson, a 
music teacher of extra ability, desir- 
ing to do something for the home 
and its inmates, has selected the chil- 
dren who have musical ability, and 
is teaching them free of charge. This 

119 



sister came in under the new law, 
and joined the order because she be- 
lieved in its principles and felt that 
it was a medium for the accomplish- 
ment of great good. Why should we 
oppose a law that brings such wom- 
anly women to our ranks? Aren't 
they worth more to us than the 
women who> join because their hus- 
bands are Odd-Fellows? 

We should take up our banner of 
friendship, love and truth, and bear 
it farther aloft than ever, because it 
is the emblem of an order that has 
broken down the prejudiced-bound 
ideas of a half century ago; that con- 
siders Earth's daughters as worthy 
as Earth's sons; that has given our 
sister woman the right to stand on 
her own merits, and that has recog- 
nized our intelligent ability to build 
up our branch of the order from a 
field of our own. We have Earth's 
fairest and noblest to glean from. 
We should go forth, like Ruth, to 
gather in a new harvest, and feel 

120 



proud that God has put it into the 
hearts of our brainiest Odd-Fellows 
to make Odd-Fellowship the farth- 
est reaching- and most elevating se- 
cret society in the world. 

Did you know that you were eligi- 
ble to our Rebekah branch, my dear 
young lady, just as much as your 
brother is eligible to the subordinate 
branch? I thought not, or you 
would availed yourself of the law to 
have joined. It is not too late now. 
You are needed for your pleasure 
and profit, and the profit it would be 
to your co-workers. With your 
home, your church and society you 
have your hands full, you say? In 
your home you live to love and work 
for, and to be loved by those to 
whom you are bound by ties of blood 
and nature; in the church you gain 
strength for your own soul; in so- 
ciety you reach and grasp those ep- 
hemeral joys and pleasures, so be- 
guiling, so seductive, yet so condu- 
cive to the growth of selfishness, that 

121 



you need some counter occupation 
to destroy that unhappy character- 
istic. I know of nothing better for 
this than some organization, the cen- 
tral truth of whose teaching is un- 
selfishness, which is practically illus- 
trated by work for humanity. Such 
an organization is Rebekah Odd- 
Fellowship. Its work is of such a 
character that the more of it you do, 
the more you gain in soul breadth. 
If you could know that by joining 
our order, you would be the means 
of educating some orphan, and plac- 
ing him where he will be a blessing 
to his age; if you could know that 
without education and training that 
orphan would be a convict within 
penitentiary walls, would you hesi- 
tate to join us? It is impossible for 
you to know these things, but it is 
infinitely worth your while to try to 
bring about the former condition, 
and defeat the latter. The influence 
of one life is not a small thing. Re- 
member that so simple a thing as the 

122 



cackling of geese saved splendid 
Rome. 

I predict that, in the near future, 
there will be another feature added 
to Odd-Fellowship that will 
strengthen it as nothing else has. 
That is a children's club. In England 
and Australia there is what is known 
as the juvenile Odd-Fellows' lodge. 
It is composed of young boys from 
nine or ten years of age to eighteen. 
In this juvenile lodge the youths are 
firmly grounded in the principles of 
Odd-Fellowship, at eighteen are al- 
lowed to enter the parent lodge, and 
make more thorough Odd-Fellows 
than those do who enter at a more 
mature age. The children prove to 
be a strength to the order, just as 
children in the Sunday school 
strengthen the church. We owe 
something to the children of our or- 
der. We should inculcate the les- 
sons of morality, and the principles 
of* the order into the minds of our 
little ones; and, to do this, we must 

123 



open the lodge room to them some- 
times. We must have special even- 
ings for them, and programs, in 
which they can take part. They 
should be allowed to sing and recite ; 
and someone, who can command the 
language that appeals to the hearts 
of children, should tell them of the 
beautiful virtues of our order. There 
is hardly an Odd-Fellow's child but 
who speaks of lodge night, asks per- 
mission to go, and what is done 
there. It is high time that our chil- 
dren should know that we are doing 
something besides prance around the 
room, in an undignified manner, 
after a thoroughbred goat, who is 
kept up to condition by such succu- 
lent things as leather straps, and old 
leather boots. 

In a newspaper article, over a year 
ago, I spoke of the benefit of a chil- 
dren's day of entertainment, and 
mapped out a plan for its celebration. 
In a short time I heard that this had 
been done at Nortonville, with such 

124 



excellent results that two days in 
each year, one in the summer and 
one in the winter, had been voted for 
the children. On the nth of Decem- 
ber I had the pleasure of witnessing 
one of these entertainments, and 
when the thirty or forty little chil- 
dren marched into the hall, with 
happy and delighted faces, and went 
through their part of the program, I 
thought that if every Odd-Fellow in 
the nation could have seen them, 
that Odd-Fellows' "children's day" 
would be established in every lodge. 
I spoke to the children on the even- 
ing mentioned, and after I had fin- 
ished talking to them there were re- 
freshments and a recess for a good 
social time, and these little children 
stood about in groups, and reck- 
oned up how long it would be 
before they could be Odd-Fel- 
lows. The children's day now is a 
familiar theme. Such a day has 
been tried and established in Nor- 
tonville, Concordia, Kansas City, 

125 



Kincaid and other places that I do 
not recall. Do you realize all that 
this work with the children means? 
It means a renewed interest in your 
own lodge work, but, more than all 
else, it means the building up of 
strong, serviceable material for fu- 
ture membership. Do you want to 
know why so many members lose in- 
terest and drop out of the order ? It 
is because they did not take it up un- 
til they were grown, perhaps well 
along in years, and the teaching of 
our order did not take hold of their 
minds with its fullest force. 

The things that make the strong- 
est impression on us are the things 
we were used to in childhood. I read 
of a man once who sniffed with de- 
light every time he smelled gas. His 
boyhood's home was beside a large 
gas plant. 

A Western yard is beautiful to me 
if it has a few evergreens in it. I 
was raised under the shadow of the 
pine forests of Maine. You can 

126 



hardly find the man or woman but 
who says: 

"Mother used to do so and so." 
"Father always said that." 

Odd-Fellowship means more to 
me than it would otherwise, on ac- 
count of something that occurred 
during my childhood. My father's 
membership was at Kittery, Maine, a 
Navy Yard town, where many men 
were dependent for a living upon the 
caprices of the government. Some- 
times, when large yard appropria- 
tions were expected, word would 
come that none had been made, and 
the yard would shut down. One 
winter, when the yard had shut 
down, there were a great many sick 
Odd-Fellows in our town. Their 
families were in almost destitute cir- 
cumstances. The lodge was pushed 
to the utmost to pay the benefits, 
which did not suffice to support the 
disabled members and their families. 
My father had a long talk with my 
mother about it, and she advised him 

127 



to lecture for the benefit of these 
men. His lecture was on "Remin- 
iscences of the Navy," and he deliv- 
ered it in South Berwick, Great Falls 
and our own home town. After the 
lecture on all of these occasions, I 
recited that grand poem of Whit- 
tier's, "The Angels of Buena Vista." 
I was not more than eleven years 
old, and it gave me a just feeling of 
pride to think that I was doing some- 
thing to lesson the griefs and anx- 
ieties of sick Odd-Fellows. I felt 
that I was quite as important, in this 
matter, as my father was. This work 
made a strong impression on me, and 
I date my Odd-Fellowship, in a 
sense, from that period. 

Seventy-one years ago* Odd-Fel- 
lowship started with five members. 
To-day a million people, in almost 
all parts of the world, are its stand- 
ard bearers. Its principles are being 
taught and its lessons being prac- 
tised in all parts of the United 
States, in a large portion of Europe, 

128 



in parts of Asia, Australia and the 
islands of the sea. 

Considering the age of Odd-Fel- 
lowship in Kansas, she is well repre- 
sented, coming to the front with 
about thirty thousand subordinates, 
and twelve thousand Rebekahs. This 
number should be increased many 
fold, and this can be done by letting 
our light shine. To do this we must 
renew ourselves in its cause. We 
must be sure that we have truth of 
sentiment, and dignity of thought, 
and then we will be ready for work. 
Especially, if we expect to influence 
others and increase our ranks, we 
must bear in mind that Bible text, 
"Pay that thou hast vowed." 

We would scorn to beat a neigh- 
bor out of a cup O'f sugar borrowed 
of her, although it is a trivial thing. 
It would bring the blush of shame to 
our faces to even think of beating a 
merchant out of the goods with 
which he has given us credit; we 
would be filled with righteous indig- 

129 



nation if any one should speak of us 
as dishonest men and women, yet, 
ye will place our hands upon the 
Bible and, in all earnestness and sin- 
cerity, take the most beautiful and 
holy vows that ever fell from human 
lips, and, in thoughtlessness and sel- 
fishness, proceed to break them. We 
are honest men and women. Aren't 
we? Yet we have not always paid 
that we have vowed. Conscientious- 
ly, that we may stand well in our 
own eyes, we must pay these vows, 
and we shall see the order flourish as 
the flowers of the field, in the re- 
freshing shower of the springtime. 

The onward tramp of Odd-Fel- 
lowship will never cease. Built upon 
the immutable cornerstones of 
friendship, love and truth, it cannot 
perish. It is the handmaiden of the 
church. It is a fitting place for all 
good men and women. In it can be 
found a personal help for mind and 
body, and it is as broad a field as 
could be asked for by the greatest 

130 



philanthropist. It is an order that 

"Seeks to but meliorate the sorrows 
of mankind, 

Relieve the poor, the sick, the maim, 
the blind, 

Lift up the drooping heart, the wid- 
ow cheer, 

And wipe away the helpless orphan's 
tear. 

To form of man one widespread 
brotherhood, 

Linked only in the bonds of doing 

£OOd." 



DEC 6 1904 



